Orangepeel

Winter Poetry and Prose Getaway

2012-01-19T13:50:00.000-08:00

I spent my holiday weekend (Jan. 16-19) attending the 19^th Annual Winter Poetry and Prose Getaway, sponsored by founder Peter Murphy and Richard Stockton College. This is my third trip to the conference, and as in the past, I had a thoroughly good time. It’s three days of writing workshops, special programs, readings, book sales, food, lodging, partying, and so forth. For the first eighteen years, the conference was held at the Grand Hotel in Cape May, a landmark that has seen better days. But this year it moved to a new venue, the Seaview, a historic hotel and golf resort that was recently bought and renovated by Stockton College. The rooms and facilities were very fine and luxurious, and the food was generally very good. It was such a frigid weekend that I didn’t venture out at all, but there was no need, because all my food and creature comforts were provided right there in the hotel.

The thrust of the weekend, at least for poets, is the ingenious writing prompts that Peter comes up with each year. We get our assignments on Saturday and Sunday morning, and have time to write until the afternoon workshops convene. I took Stephen Dunn’s and James Richardson’s workshops (same as I did two years ago) and as usual both were excellent. Stephen Dunn is not for the “thin-skinned” poet, because he often gives very frank critique. Some have called his style severe, even “brutal”, but I’ve never seen that from him. He’s a very wise man and I appreciated his comments on my poetry as well other wisdom he shared, and he’s quite approachable. Jim Richardson is just a very nice and laid-back guy, but he also has a lot to offer with critique. Both of them have impressive credentials: Dunn has won the Pulitzer Prize and a raft of other awards, and Richardson last year won the prestigious Jackson Prize and earned a National Book Award nomination. Having the opportunity to work with both of them is, as they say in the credit card commercials, priceless. In addition, there was a gallery tribute to Dunn sponsored by the Noyes Museum, featuring memorabilia from his career and an insight into his writing and revision process. (Anyone who thinks his critique “severe” should study these displays , because I came away from them realizing that he doesn’t offer any critique that he wouldn’t give to himself.) He also released a chapbook of short poems, Falling Backwards into the World, in conjunction with this year’s conference.

The rest of the conference was terrific too: I got a tutorial session with poet friend B.J. Ward, and took a third workshop run by another poet friend, Barbara Daniels. It was fun to see so many poets whom I know, and I made a few new friends as well. There were two evening open mic sessions, both of which were very good, as well as a talk by Nelson Johnson, author of Boardwalk Empire, the book about Atlantic City that was the basis for the hit HBO series. The weekend was capped off with an inspiring gospel choir to celebrate Dr. King’s Birthday. I came home with three new poems that I wrote, plus a bag full of books from the book sale, including Peter’s anthology of published poems that had been written for his prompts over the years, Challenges for the Delusional . I submitted three of my poems for the anthology and didn’t make the cut, but the list of poets that were included is quite impressive. All in all, it was a great weekend, and I came home feeling, as one of my poet friends described it, "blissfully exhausted". Thanks once again to Peter, his right-hand woman (daughter Amanda), and all the staff and faculty who made it possible.

Happy New Year!

2012-01-03T16:11:00.000-08:00

It's been the usual hectic holiday season for us, capped off by an end-of-year road trip to Florida, in part to celebrate my youngest son's 16th birthday. We left the day after Christmas (my wife, my son, our international student, and I), and got a relatively late morning start, so traffic was quite heavy, especially in the the Washington/suburban VA area. Our objective was St. Augustine, normally a 14-hour drive, and we limped in just before 2:00 a.m to check in at the local Best Western. I could have slept on a concrete slab at that point, but our beds were quite comfortable and our rooms were clean. The next day we did some sightseeing at the old Spanish fort and the lighthouse museum, had a tasty lunch at a "Spanish bakery", and later headed to our resort unit at Sheraton Vistana in Orlando. Wednesday we took a day trip to Kennedy Space Center, Thursday was Disney (Magic Kingdom and Epcot) and Friday was The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios. Needless to say, being Christmas week and all, the parks were packed, and long waiting lines were the norm, but we had a good time nonetheless, especially the boys, who managed to ride most of the popular roller coasters in both parks. We also enjoyed a dinner/show package at Epcot, which included a meat-lover's buffet at the German Biergarten (complete with "oompah band"), a bombastic Christmas concert, and choice seating for the light-and-fireworks show at Epcot. New Year's Eve we spent the night in Florence, SC, in a very nice Country Inn and Suites, and went out to see the film "War Horse". (A bit overly sentimental in my opinion but still worth seeing.) The weather was fine for virtually the whole trip, though it was a bit chillier than normal in Florida the first couple of days. Traffic back home was much more forgiving than on the way down, and breaking it up into two more-or-less even driving days was much more civilized. It also helped that we rented a Town and Country minivan, to make the trip more comfortable for the boys as well as us. That baby was loaded, too: satellite radio, CD and DVD player, rear back-up camera and blind-spot indicators, automated everything, and decent gas mileage. We hated to turn it back in. It was a tiring but good trip. Our only real regret was not having enough time to head further south and visit my wife's relatives.

I received my copies of both the anthologies released in December that feature my poetry: The Best of the Barefoot Muse and Prompted. Both are now available on Amazon.com, and Prompted is now available as a Kindle e-book. I also learned that a haiku of mine was read on NPR in December. I had commented on an article on their website about traffic signs erected across New York City that feature creative graphics and messages written in haiku, so I suggested one of my own creation:

Don't push the red light -

cross streets aren't the best places

for chance encounters

Well, Scott Simon read it during the listener's mail segment of his program. You can hear it here: http://www.npr.org/2011/12/10/143497210/your-letters-traffic-signs-and-front-runners

I was thinking of all the best-of-2011 lists that come out around this time of the year, and started thinking of what I would list as the ten best, or at least the most important, events of my past year. It was kind of interesting to compile, and I suggest you try it too. Here's mine:

1. The Palm Beach Poetry Festival, and working with Jane Hirshfield

2. Son #3's graduation (Masters in linguistics from Georgetown U.)

3. Our son's friends Pat and Jenny's wedding

4. The above-mentioned Florida trip

5. The West Chester Poetry Conference, and working with Molly Peacock

6. Trips to Minnesota to take and bring home son #4 who went to four weeks of "Japanese immersion" camp - and our side trip to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

7. A long weekend getaway with the wife to a B&B in Cooperstown, NY and my first visit to the Baseball Hall of Fame

8. Son #4 in the high school musical (The Music Man)

9. Several poetry publications, including two poems in Writers Digest, two anthologies, and the above-mentioned haiku on NPR

10. My 60th birthday

Music: While we're on the subject of best-of lists, here's my annual Amazon Listmania list of my 30 favorite albums of 2011:

http://www.amazon.com/lm/R17M3P9AQWGNBQ/ref=cm_pdp_lm_title_1

If you're just curious about the top 10, they are:

1. build a rocket boys! - Elbow

2. So Beautiful or So What - Paul Simon

3. 21 - Adele

4. Slave Ambient - The War on Drugs

5. The Whole Love - Wilco

6. Metals - Feist

7. The Grand Theatre Vol. 2 - Old 97's

8. I Am Very Far - Okkervil River

9. Bloodless Coup - Bell X1

10. Within and Without - Washed Out

Poem of the Month:

Here's the one in The Best of the Barefoot Muse anthology, dedicated to my wonderful wife. (Thanks again to editor Anna Evans for including me in this fine collection.)

Your Missing Piece

Like a puzzle, you now feel incomplete,
afraid to let me see the angry scar
where it was sliced away like so much meat.
You wonder what is left, and what you are -

asymmetry that makes a restless night.
You worry I’ll no longer hold you close,
but you’re my source, my beacon of delight.
You’re, in my eyes, a pruned but perfect rose.

Reminding us of our mortality,
events like this can forge a stronger bond,
a love unfazed by stark reality,
that rides the rapids for a quiet pond.

The bottom line is, it was just a breast;
the best news is, we get to keep the rest.

Some Good Poetry News

2011-12-05T19:00:00.000-08:00

1. Verse Wisconsin has accepted two of my poems, "Ghosts" and "Downsizing", for a future issue, probably next fall because of their seasonal subjects. I met the editor, Sarah Busse, at the West Chester Poetry Conference last summer and she's a fine person who runs a fine journal, which exists both in print and online. I'm happy to be part of it.

2. I just found out today that I have been accepted into a week-long intensive workshop run by poet and author Marge Piercy, next June on Cape Cod. I'm excited because she is one of my favorite contemporary poets. We may make a family vacation out of it, and she's one of my wife's favorite poets too, so maybe she'll get to meet her as well. I'm honored because only twelve people will be selected for the workshop.

3. My friend Anna Evans, who has worn several editor's hats, had to suspend her excellent online formal poetry journal The Barefoot Muse, but she just finished compiling a print anthology of the best of the journal, and my poem "Your Missing Piece" (a sonnet about my wife's breast cancer surgery) will appear in it. It promises to be a really good collection of poetry - here's the link if you are interested: http://www.barefootmuse.com/

4. My poem "Six-word Spoilers" appears in the January 2012 issue of Writer's Digest, in Robert Brewer's column "Poetic Asides". The poem is a series of short three-line poems called "hay(na)ku": the first line has one word, the second line two words, the third line three words. That's it. For space reasons, they printed only the first four stanzas of the eight in my poem, which was okay, since it's really a series of ha(nay)ku, but for the record, here's the whole thing:

Six-word Spoilers

Rosebud’s
Kane’s sled -
who’d have thought?

Vader
tells Luke:
“I’m your father.”

Norman
slashes folks
dressed as Mom.

Heston
finds ruined
Statue of Liberty.

Shrink,
Dr. Malcolm,
is a ghost.

Date-
night shocker -
Dil’s a man!

Devious
suspect – Verbal
is Keyser Soze.

What’s
Soylent Green?
Yuck! It’s people!

And here's a bonus poem. I just discovered a blog called The Sunday Whirl, where they do a weekly writing prompt based on "Wordle", a writing exercise where you're given a word bank and instructed to use as many of those words as you can in a poem. I love doing these kinds of prompts, and several of my friends from the Poetic Asides blog participate, so I thought I'd give it a shot. Here's my first attempt (the underlined words are from the word bank). Pardon the double-spacing - my settings suddenly got a little goofy and I didn't know how to fix them:

December

December, you subtle beast,

you corner us on the precipice

of winter before we have an inkling

of what's happening, then surprise us

one morning with vanilla-crusted ground

and trees laden with frosting.

You may wish us to tremble in awe,

but we won't genuflect to your power.

We're made of thicker bark than that.

We'll hunker down when real winter comes.

it's our mission to make the most of it -

a hot pot of tea on a trivet,

an amorous evening before the fire.

2011-11-03T19:37:00.000-07:00

The busy holiday season is about to spring upon us, so isn't a bit masochistic to take on another poem-a-day challenge in November? Well, maybe not as much as writing a novel for National Novel Writing Month, but still.... I'm following Robert Brewer's daily prompts again for the Poetic Asides November Chapbook Challenge. Three poems in three days so far. (Well, five actually, if you count the two limericks for Mad Kane's Humor Blog.) The other thing I'm doing is posting a video of a favorite poem each day on my Facebook page. So far I've used "Facing It" by Yusef Komunyakaa, "Forgetfulness" and "Lanyard" by Billy Collins, and "Those Winter Sundays" by Robert Hayden.

I had the pleasure of seeing Jane Hirshfield again a couple of weeks ago at the Kelly Writers House on the University of Pennsylvania campus. (You may recall I took a week-long workshop with her in Florida last January, and if you know me well, you're probably getting tired of hearing me talk about it.) She read from her wonderful new collection of poems, Come, Thief. I was happy that she recognized me when I came up to say hello afterward, especially since she has admitted to a bad case of "face blindness". I did tip her off that I was coming to the reading, though, through our e-mail correspondence. You must get her book - my review of it on Amazon.com can be found here.

In publication news, I've had a few rejections, including the anthology of poems from Peter Murphy's Winter Poetry and Prose Getaway - I didn't make the cut. I was sure they'd like my wedding poem, "Hoofing", enough to include it, but Peter's daughter Amanda said that they'd had an incredible response and could only take about 10% of the poems submitted.) On the up side, my friend Anna Evans, who edited the recently closed online formal zine The Barefoot Muse, asked if she could include my sonnet "You Missing Piece" in a "best-of" print anthology she's putting together. I'm honored to be included. Also a group of us members of the Poetic Asides blog are putting together an anthology of poems written in response to Robert Brewer's prompts. I will have three poems included in that publication. I also got my Summer issue of The Lyric poetry magazine which contains my poem "Doldrums".

I forgot to mention in the last blog that I attended the Collingswood Book Festival for the first time this year, on October 1. It's a huge street festival held every year in Collingswood NJ, featuring editors, publishers, book sellers, authors and poets selling their wares, and reading and signing their works. There's a poetry tent that features readings throughout the day, and my friend Tammy Paolino, who's a fine poet and an editor for the Courier-Post, helped organize the events. Two of my favorite regional poets, B.J. Ward and Charles H. Johnson, were featured readers, along with Tammy And her poetic colleague Laurie Guarnieri, and my friends Anna Evans and Rachel Bunting. The weather was perfect too - I had a really good time.

Baseball: Well, another season bites the dust, and once again, so do the Phillies in the post-season. After winning a team record 102 games in the regular season, they couldn't get past the Cardinals in the divisional series. The Cardinals played like a team possessed, and eventually won the World Series title over the Texas Rangers. The Phils just couldn't muster up enough offense. Ironically, after Game 3 of the divisional series, when the Phils were up 2 games to 1, a panel of astute analysts on MLB network declared unanimously, "The Cardinals are done." How very wrong they were. Oh well, there's always next year. I am excited, though, that I'll be seeing them in spring training in Clearwater, FL next March.

Poem of the Month: I don't know if I told the story here before of this poem, which appears in the new issue of The Lyric. The editor has already accepted two of my other poems for previous issues, but when I heard nothing more for almost a year, I assumed she didn't accept the others I had submitted. Then out of the blue I got an e-mail from her last spring: She had accepted my other poem "Doldrums" but the letter to me got lost on her desk, until she was cleaning it out one day. She asked if it was still available, and I said yes indeed.

Doldrums

Your day, a gray-flat stratus of a sky,

runs on humidity and sogs the mind

with melted ice cream, watermelon rind,

as uninspired summer hobbles by.

The afternoon will settle, like a fly

on honey, six legs stuck in disrepair.

Though thunderstorming evenings clear the air,

ennui is moderate, not hot and dry.

The day collects as dew upon a glass,

and tracks in rivulets to tabletop,

but life’s not uneventful as it seems.

Though clouds will rumble on as hours pass,

its manufacture never deigns to stop.

The day becomes the engine of our dreams.

No Joy in Mudville

2011-10-07T17:24:00.000-07:00

When I began writing this blog entry tonight, the Phillies and Cardinals were beginning the fifth and deciding game on the NL Division Series. Two aces, and best buddies off the field, Roy Halladay and Cris Carpenter, were squaring off in what promised to be a real pitchers' duel. And it was just that - the Phils lost to the wild-card upstart Cards, 1-0, thus ending their club-record 102-win season. The difference, I think, is the Cards' bats got hot just as the Phillies went cold, and the Cards clawed and scraped their way up the standings in the last month of the season to steal the wild card from the Braves, while the Phils were on cruise control, riding a big lead and clinching in mid-September. Sometimes momentum is everything. We've seen superb pitching but streaky offense from this Phillies club all year, so in a way I'm not surprised that it ended, not with a bang but a whimper. Guys, you had a great regular season, but once again you broke my heart.

On a brighter note, autumn is in full swing, and school's back in session - my youngest is now a high school sophomore, and we have a new international student from Korea, who is also a sophomore, staying with us this year. We've weathered an earthquake and a hurricane in one week, and attended our biggest social event of the year, the wedding of my son and daughter-in-law's friends Pat and Jenny in Maine. What a great wedding it was, and she was a lovely bride. (It's not often you see a bride in a top hat!) It had a lot of the same vibe - and many of the same friends and family - as my son's wedding last year.

In poetry, there's not a lot of news. I did get one more acceptance: Shot Glass Journal published my short poem "Good Advice". I also attended the launch party of the 10th anniversary issue of Edison Literary Review. It's quite a milestone, and it includes a poem of mine and one by Pulitzer Prize-winning New Jersey poet Stephen Dunn. GIna and John Larkin and Tony Gruenwald deserve a lot of credit for putting together this quality journal for a decade.

I'm waiting patiently for a few submissions: to Daily Haiku, a Canadian online site with a daily featured haiku and a semiannual print journal; the 2013 edition of Poet's Market, in which editor Robert Brewer will be publishing, for the first time, new and original poetry; and an anthology edited by Peter Murphy, mastermind of the Winter Poetry and Prose Getaway, late of Cape May and coming this January to Galloway (near Atlantic City) NJ. I'm excited about the concept of this one: He invited former attendees of his past conferences (which have run for about 19 years now) to submit poems they have written in response to the conference's famous writing prompts and have subsequently been published. I have had three published from among the poems I wrote at the two conferences I've attended. With a little luck, at least one of them will be in the anthology. I also plan to return to the conference this January. It was in rather dire financial straits, according to Peter, until Richard Stockton College stepped in to help out. There's a change of venue this year (for the better, I'm told, though not right on the beach as it was in Cape May) and the list of big-name poets is shorter, but it still should be a fine weekend. Stephen Dunn is there, as always (I took his workshop at the 2010 conference and it was great). There are some nice success stories among the faculty poets who have participated: Dunn, of course, has won the Pulitzer Prize since he began his association with the conference. James Richardson, whose workshop I took also in 2010, was nominated for a National Book Award last year and won the prestigious Jackson Prize. And Kathleen Graber, who started out years ago as a conference attendee and wrote her first poem at the conference, was also nominated last year for a National Book Award. The conference in past years has also attracted big names like Mark Doty and his partner, fiction writer Paul Lisicky; and last year, poets Patricia Smith and Dorianne Laux.

It's very cool when you get to meet and work with a famous poet, as I did earlier this year. But it's just as cool when you continue a correspondence with them. A few months ago, I shared the good news of a poem publication in Writers Digest, and I got a brief but sincere congratulations from her. About a month later I e-mailed to tell her how much I enjoyed a new publication of hers, and brought her up to date on my poetic exploits. I ended it with something self-effacing like, "I hope I haven't taken up too much of your time." Well, shortly thereafter I got a reply from her that was twice as long as my e-mail. The other night I sent another e-mail praising her new book of poetry and telling her I was looking forward to seeing her again at an upcoming reading. She responded with a another nice, relatively long e-mail within the hour. I feel like we're actually becoming friends. She really is a wonderful person and an amazing poet.

Music: It's time to start thinking about my favorite albums of the year, and though for me the field is not as impressive as last year's, there's still been a lot of really fine music. One that will surely be in my top 10, if not top 5, is the new album from the Philly band The War on Drugs, Slave Ambient. It's a unique amalgam of roots rock and electronica, kind of like Springsteen, Dylan and Petty meet Moby and My Bloody Valentine. Sounds like an aural mess, but it works amazingly well, and "Baby Missiles" is one of the most enjoyable songs of the year.

Poetry: Here's the poem that appears in the new issue of Edison Literary Review:

Never Say

She declared she could never

but he insisted that he will always.

She announced that she frequently

but he stated that he rarely.

She offered that she might occasionally

and he admitted that he usually.

They agreed to sometimes.

Now they often.

How I've Spent My Summer

2011-08-19T21:37:00.000-07:00

Time to update this old blog! It's been a pretty busy summer. One of the biggest events was my youngest son’s experience in Minnesota, living at a four-week language-immersion camps run by Concordia University. With one year of high school Japanese under his belt, he decided to attend their Japanese camp, and he had a great time. It was challenging, though: He was required to speak nothing but Japanese for the whole four weeks, from the moment he stepped out of the car. He wasn’t even allowed to bring any English-language books to camp (except a Japanese-English dictionary) and had to change his U.S. spending money to yen. It’s a beautiful camp on a lake (just about everything in that part of Minnesota is on a lake), and getting there, and back, from New Jersey, was half the fun. I flew out with him, and drove a rental car from Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport to camp (a three-and-a-half hour drive), but to pick him up, my wife and I drove out there and back – a two-day-plus journey each way, almost 2700 miles round-trip. (If we’d driven straight instead of heading back home we could have made it to California.) It wasn’t bad for the most part, except for some horrendous stormy weather the morning we hit Chicago. Despite the marathon driving, we tried to make something of a vacation out of it – the highlights included picnicking on the beach of Lake Michigan one evening in Indiana, and enjoying a spectacular sunset over the lake. After picking up our son, we spent a nice evening in St. Cloud, Minnesota – attending church, going out to dinner and seeing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2. On the way home, we took a side trip to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland – what an awesome and fun place.

After returning home, we got ready for two big moves. First, son #3 moved to Manhattan where he recently got a job as a project coordinator for a translation company there. Then the following weekend, our former international student, who is heading to Penn State for college, needed our help getting moved into his off-campus apartment. Busy, busy, busy.

Poetry-wise, I’m in a bit of a blue period, so to speak – not producing a lot of new poetry, but I have been submitting more since May and June, and so far I had some pretty good results:

1. My poem “New Season” will appear in the next issue of Spitball, the “literary baseball” magazine.

2. “Postcard from the Ex”, which was #2 on Robert Brewer’s Top 50 for the Poetic Asides April Poem-a-Day Challenge, will appear in the next issue of US 1 Worksheets.

3. Two haiku appear in the new issue of the online journal Four and Twenty.

4. My “Fibonacci poem” entitled “Big Picture” will appear in the next issue of The Fib Review.

I also have a poem, “Never Say” in the upcoming tenth anniversary issue of Edison Literary Review. I’m still waiting to hear on my submission to Shot Glass Journal, as well as the annual Tiferet poetry contest. Also, I just submitted for the 2013 Poet’s Market, edited by the estimable Mr. Brewer, who will be publishing, for the first time, twenty new poems in that edition.

But the biggest news is the appearance of my sonnet, “Two Writers”, in the July/August issue of Writer’s Digest. It was my “prize” for winning Robert Brewer’s sonnet contest on his Poetic Asides blog, and it appears in his magazine column as an example of the sonnet form. That is easily my biggest publication in terms of circulation and exposure so far. Since I’ll probably never get into the New Yorker, I’ll relish this one for a while.

I have been having fun participating on “Mad Kane’s Poetry Blog”, run by Benchley-Award-winning writer Madeline Begun Kane. She sponsors a weekly limerick contest where she provides the first line, and participants build a limerick from it. I’ve received a couple of honorable mentions so far, but it’s more for fun than anything, plus a way to keep some rather stagnant creative juices flowing. Here’s an example:

A man who was proud of his clout

brought a bat to the plate, big and stout.

Quite a menacing guy

when the pitcher let fly –

but whattaya know – he struck out!

And speaking of baseball (how’s that for a segue), my Phillies are tearing it up lately, with the best record in baseball, and as expected, the best starting pitching rotation in baseball. Their offense got a much-needed shot in the arm with the acquisition of that spark plug, Hunter Pence, who finally filled the hole in right field that was left when Jayson Werth followed the money to Washington. World Series, anyone?

Music: One of most interesting releases of the year is Slave Ambient, by the Philly band The War on Drugs. Think "Dylan and Springsteen meet Moby". Seriously, it's surprisingly good stuff. Other noteworthy releases:

The Baseball Project - High and Inside

Bell X1 - Bloodless Coup

Death Cab for Cutie - Codes and Keys

Drive-by Truckers - Go Go Boots

Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues

Gillian Welch - The Harrow and the Harvest

Iron and Wine - Kiss Each Other Clean

Moby - Destroyed

Old 97's - The Grand Theatre Vol. 2

Raphael Saadiq - Stone Rollin'

TV on the Radio - Nine Types of Light

Washed Out - Wthin and Without

Poem of the... Blog Entry:

For those of you who missed my poem in Writer's Digest - or if you're just too cheap to buy the issue - here's my published sonnet:

Two Writers

We went for coffee that June afternoon,

beneath a deck of building clouds, and sat

outdoors, the bistro patio festooned

with marigolds. And there I told you that

I missed the way we used to share our craft,

how poetry would pull us through the miles.

I told some funny anecdotes; you laughed.

We made “shop talk” about our different styles.

The sunlit awning washed our faces red,

but faded just as we began to write.

The rain, staccato, drummed above our heads;

we finished and we shared, and yet despite

our feverish pens, they left a panoply

of words unsaid, beneath that canopy.

[P.S.: I really didn't mean to do so much double-spacing - had a bit of a formatting problem.]

West Chester Poetry Conference

2011-06-12T16:11:00.001-07:00

Here I am, dusting off the cobwebs of this old blog again! I tend to wait till I have significant news, so here it is. I attended the 17th annual West Chester Poetry Conference at West Chester University in PA, about an hour drive from my home. The conference, whose focus is on formal and metrical poetry, ran from Wednesday June 8 through Saturday, June 11, and included three-day workshops plus readings, seminars, panel discussions, social events, and more. Robert Pinsky gave a keynote speech and reading Wednesday night, and he stuck around Thursday for a "town hall" conversation and Q&A. Richard Wilbur was also in attendance, and the conference offered a tribute and 90th birthday party for him. The workshops were led by such poets as Dana Gioia (co-founder of the conference), Kim Addonizio, Molly Peacock, Timothy Steele, David Mason, Dick Davis, A.E. Stallings, Alison Joseph, and others. I also met some up-and-coming, talented young poets like Amit Majmudar, Andrew Sofer, and Annabelle Moseley. My friend Anna Evans was also involved as a faculty member, moderator and presenter, in her roles as editor of the Raintown Review and member of Mezzo Cammin Women Poets Timeline Project.

I took Molly Peacock's "master class" on the villanelle, and it was excellent - about ten of us were in the workshop discussing the form, reading examples, and writing and reading our own work. We also each got a half-hour one-on-one session with Molly, and I'm pleased to say she loved my work and offered good constructive critique. I wrote two pretty good villanelles, one of which got a very positive response both in class an at the participants' open reading later that day. Although this conference had more of an academic feel to it than the Palm Beach Festival I attended earlier this year, I think I held my own pretty well.

If you're a poet or other type of writer and haven't been to a conference, you need to get to one posthaste. They are a golden opportunity to work with renowned writers, meet and befriend other writers, network with publishers and editors (and sometimes agents), and immerse yourself in the writing world for a few days. Oh, and let's not forget all the "freebies", from pens and blank journals to books and periodicals. It's an experience not to be missed.

In other poetry news, I'm anxiously awaiting the release of the July/August issue of Writers Digest, which will contain my sonnet "Two Writers" in Robert Brewer's poetry column. I also got an ineresting e-mail from the editor of the print journal The Lyric about a week ago: She was cleaning up her desk and discovered a letter from two years ago that she had never sent to me, accepting my sonnet "Doldrums", but asking for a minor editorial change. She assumed my lack of response was due to not accepting the suggestion, and forgot about the poem until recently when she found the letter. She asked if the poem was still available. Why yes, I said, so it will appear in an upcoming issue.

Also, I will be the featured reader at Poetry in the Round, Barnes and Noble Bookstore, Rte. 70 in Marlton NJ, on Monday June 20 at 7:30 p.m.

Oh, yes, and an update from way back in April: I did finish the Poem-a-Day Challenge on Robert Brewer's Poetic Asides blog, cranking out 36 poems in 30 days. Here's one of them:

Maybe This is All Just a Dream

and I'll wake to find
Bobby Ewing in the shower
or Emily Hartley in my bed.

I'll return from my trip to Oz
with a bump on my head
from the twister, and Auntie Em,
family and friends at my bedside.

Maybe I'm a bit player in the daydream
of some autistic kid with a snow globe
of a hospital in his hand.

Or maybe I'm one of those folks
working on an inception,
and then I'll wake up,
and then I'll wake up,
and then I'll wake up,
and then I'll wake up.

News Flash: Contest Winner!

2011-04-18T11:27:00.000-07:00

I just learned that my sonnet, "Two Writers", has won a sonnet contest held by Robert Brewer of Poetic Asides. The poem will appear in his column in the July/August issue of Writers Digest magazine. I'm stoked!

Happy NaPoMo!

2011-04-12T09:34:00.001-07:00

All right, it’s about time to update this blog for the two or three of you who actually read it. It’s that time of year again: National Poetry Month! As usual, I am celebrating it by participating in the Poem-a-Day Challenge. I’m off to a flying start with thirteen poems in the first eleven days (fourteen if you count one that I finished on April 1). And as usual, I’m participating in Robert Brewer’s challenge on his Poetic Asides blog. It’s fun to work on the daily prompts and to share with a supportive online community there. I hope that at the end of the month, at least some of my 30-plus poems will be worthy of sharing with the rest of the world.

I kicked off NaPoMo in fine fashion, with two book-launch parties for two journals. April 1 was the launch event for Up and Under: The QND Review (produced by our little writing group, the Quick and Dirty Poets). It’s another excellent issue, IMHO, featuring Lyn Lifshin, the aforementioned Robert Brewer, and a fine lineup of others. (Unfortunately, it will be our last issue for a while, as our group decided to put it on indefinite hiatus so we could focus more on our other activities, like critiquing each others’ work and hosting our monthly poetry readings at the Daily Grind in Mt. Holly, NJ.) The other launch party was for US 1 Worksheets, a quality annual journal out of Princeton, NJ, produced by the US 1 Poets cooperative. It’s always a great event, well-attended, and the quality of work in this latest issue may just be the best ever.

Another great event this month, which I won’t be able to attend, is the Princeton Poetry Festival on April 29 and 30, a biannual event on the Princeton University campus featuring some of the best poets working today. It has the feel of a mini-Dodge Festival, and it’s well worth attending. This year features renowned poets such as Mark Doty, Sharon Olds, Carl Philips, Charles Simic, Natasha Trethewey, and Kathleen Graber.

I am hoping, however, to attend this year’s West Chester Poetry Conference in June. My friend Anna Evans has been involved with it for the last few years and has been encouraging me to attend. This year she’s leading a panel discussion on formal poetry journals, and as usual the conference lineup is impressive. Robert Pinsky is the keynote speaker, and there are several workshops from which to choose. I hope to get into one headed by Dana Gioia, Molly Peacock, or Kim Addonizio.

Last but not least, I was happy to hear the James Richardson, a fine poet out of Princeton whom I met and workshopped with at last year’s Winter Poetry and Prose Getaway in Cape May, just won the Jackson Poetry Prize from Poets and Writers Magazine. It’s a generous ($50,000!) award for a poet who has done excellent recent work and deserves more recognition. His latest poetry collection, By the Numbers, was also nominated for a National Book Award. Way to go, Jim!

Baseball: My Phillies are off to a good start this year. They’re picked to win their division, and possibly the NL pennant, thanks in part to what is, at least on paper, the best starting pitching rotation in baseball, or as they’ve come to be called, “The Four Aces”: Halladay, Lee, Oswalt and Hamels. And let’s not forget the usually dependable Joe Blanton. The early results have been mixed – not all the aces have been impressive every time on the mound, but the good thing is that the Phils’ offense has stepped up and exceeded expectations. Yes, they’ll miss Jason Werth, but if the aces stay healthy, they may still have a record-setting year.

Music: Very briefly, some recommended new albums for 2011:

Elbow – build a rocket boys!

Adele – 21

Middle Brother – Middle Brother

Paul Simon – So Beautiful or So What

R.E.M. – Collapse into Now

Decemberists – The King is Dead

Poem of the Month: Here’s the one that appears in the new issue of US 1 Worksheets.

Rapids Again

By rights, we should be done with this.

We’ve already brought up three,

rode the whitewaters of their adolescence,

then walked them carefully through the door.

Now, when most of our peers are enjoying

grandparenthood, we are raising another,

rescued from the trap of a lesser life.

He’s blessed to have you, everyone tells us.

But at thirteen, he doesn’t often feel that way.

Some days we feel too old to do this.

The rapids await once again, rougher

than they ever seemed before.

But we’re ready – our raft patched and inflated,

our life jackets strapped on tight,

our well-worn oars clutched in our hands.

A Quick Note...

2011-03-09T05:06:00.000-08:00

If you haven't seen it yet, I have a "guest blogger" article on Robert Brewer's Poetic Asides blog - it's entitled "7 Reasons Why You Should Be in a Writing Group". Check it out here.

Parental Bragging and a Festival Photo

2011-02-17T21:28:00.001-08:00

My son Chris, a sociology professor at Hofstra U. and Academic Director of the Center for Suburban Studies there, was interviewed today on "Soundcheck", a program on New York's public radio station WYNC. He and host John Schaefer discuss Arcade Fire's album The Suburbs, which just won a Grammy for Album of the Year. You can listen to the broadcast here:

And here is a photo of me with Jane Hirshfield and my awesome workshop group at the Palm Beach Poetry Festival. (I'm in the back row with the cap, and Jane is on my right.)

Palm Beach Poetry Fetival

2011-01-23T19:42:00.003-08:00

I am the worst blogger - every time I promise to make this a regular habit and post weekly, or biweekly, or whatever, I backslide again. Well, at least now I have a good reason for a post. I had the pleasure of attending the 7th Annual Palm Beach Poetry Festival in Delray Beach, Florida from January 17 to 23, and it was without a doubt the best conference I've attended yet. The list of "all-stars" was mind-boggling: Jane Hirshfield, Thomas Lux, Heather McHugh, C.D. Wright, Stuart Dischell, Ellen Bryant Voigt, Vijay Seshadri, and Alan Shapiro, plus performance poets Taylor Mali and D. Blair, and a special poetry-with-jazz performance by former US Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky. The schedule included morning workshops, afternoon craft talks, evening readings by the above-mentioned "faculty". Wednesday evening featured a gala dinner and Robert Pinsky's reading, and Saturday was an evening performance-poetry event with Blair and Mali, plus DJ dancing and drinks.

I had the great fortune of getting into Jane Hirshfield's workshop, and it was a wonderful experience. She worked with about a dozen of us all week, which included five all-morning sessions and a brief one-on-one conference with each participant. I was a bit anxious beforehand, not so much about meeting and working with Jane, but with the level of skill of the other participants. Would I feel like a hack in their midst? But no, despite the fact that they were an extremely talented bunch, I felt like a peer and an equal. We started each day sharing a favorite poem by another poet, then had a writing "experiment", as Jane called it, after which we shared our results with the group. Then we critiqued each others' poems submitted for the workshop. It was a productive and rewarding week. Jane is a wise, warm and gracious lady - and one hell of a poet. She even went out to dinner with all of us on Saturday evening.

There were also readings on two afternoons by the workshop participants. I read a poem I wrote in workshop, "Suitcase", which got a good response. I also re-connected with my old poetry friend Lorraine Stanchich, who has been involved with the festival before and was asked to be Mr. Pinsky's assistant. I got to meet him afterward too - really nice guy. And of course, on top of all of this, the weather was in the 70's and 80's almost the whole week - a wonderful if brief departure from winter in New Jersey. Now I have to return to the "real world". Sigh....

Big Poetry News and Best Music of the Year

2010-11-20T15:34:00.000-08:00

I am psyched! I applied to attend the Palm Beach Poetry Festival this coming January in Delray Beach, Florida, a great annual conference that features some of the country's premier poets who run intensive workshops throughout the week, as well as special events, panel discussions and readings. I just found out the other day that I've been accepted into the conference, and I will be workshopping with one of my favorite poets, Jane Hirshfield. Also leading workshops there will be Thomas Lux, Heather McHugh, C.D. Wright, Alan Shapiro, Stuart Dischell, Ellen Bryant Voigt, and Vijay Shesadri. There will also be featured readers like Robert Pinsky and performance poet Taylor Mali. I'll be staying and hanging out with my wife's relatives there, too. It should be a great week!

I've been doing Robert Brewer's "Poem-a-Day Chapbook Challenge" again this year - a poem a day throughout the month of November, with the intent to create a chapbook manuscript at the end. I don't know if I have a unified chapbook theme at this point, but at least I'll have a few good poems coming out of it. I'm almost two days behind at this point, though, as I haven't written a poem yesterday or today so far. I feel like a slacker for not writing a poem in two days - how about that?

I was featured poet at Poetry in the Round at Barnes and Noble last Monday. It was a small audience, and my friend Kelly Fineman stepped in for regular host Barney Oldfield, who was under the weather. The highlight of the evening for me, however, was my friend Bill, who attended and read a poem he had written about his experience with cancer treatment in the last year. He said he hadn't written poetry in decades until he was inspired by another cancer survivor who attended one of these readings last year. I think it may be the first time he ever read one of his poems in public, and he did fine.

We also had a very successful reading in our Quick and Dirty Poets series, featuring Teresa Leo, last night. The little coffee shop where we meet, The Daily Grind, was standing room only, and the place was full of great poetry by Teresa and others

Music: I submitted my final lists of best 10 albums and songs of 2010 to WXPN this week, and I'm looking forward to their countdown at the end of the year. I have to say though, that this was a rich year for music, and cutting my lists down to a top 10 was a real chore, but here are my choices:

Top Ten Albums:

1. Arcade Fire – The Suburbs
2. The Hold Steady – Heaven is Whenever
3. The National – High Violet
4. Beach House – Teen Dream
5. Frightened Rabbit – The Winter of Mixed Drinks
6. Bettye LaVette – Interpretations: The British Rock Songbook
7. Drive-By Truckers – The Big To-Do
8. Black Keys – Brothers
9. Sufjan Stevens – The Age of Adz and All Delighted People EP
10. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - Mojo

Honorable Mentions:
Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings: I Learned the Hard Way
Josh Ritter - So Runs the World Away
Alejandro Escovedo - Street Songs of Love
Yeasayer - Odd Blood
Spoon - Transference
The New Pornographers - Together
Bruce Springsteen - The Promise
Jimi Hendrix - Valleys of Neptune
Herbie Hancock - The Imagine Project
Ray La Montagne - God Willin' and the Creek Don't Rise
Natalie Merchant - Leave Your Sleep
Field Music - Field Music (Measure)
Vampire Weekend - Contra

Top Ten songs:

1. I Should Have Known It – Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
2. Measure – Field Music
3. Working This Job – Drive-by Truckers
4. Anchor – Alejandro Escovedo
5. Bloodbuzz Ohio – The National
6. Sprawl II – Arcade Fire
7. I Walked – Sufjan Stevens
8. Too Afraid to Love You – The Black Keys
9. Haul Me Up – Richard Thompson
10. Burn It Down – Los Lobos

Honorable Mention:
Laredo - Band of Horses
Zebra - Beach House
Cousins - Vampire Weekend
American Slang - The Gaslight Anthem
Repo Man - Ray LaMontagne
The Mystery Zone - Spoon
Swim Until You Can't See Land - Frightened Rabbit
Angel Dance - Robert Plant
Your Hands (Together) - New Pornographers
The Weekenders - The Hold Steady

Poem of the Month:

Here's one of the two poems published in the current issue of the online journal Tilt-a-Whirl:

Poe Boy Blues

Well, I woke up this mornin’,
there was a raven in my bed.
I woke up this mornin’,
there was a raven in my bed.
If I didn’t know better,
I’d swear that I was dead.

When I went downstairs,
I heard a thumpin’ under the floor.
Yeah, when I went downstairs,
I swear I heard thumpin’ in the floor.
It sounded like a beatin’ heart,
so I ran right out the door.

I’m pinin’ for my Annie,
I’m pinin’ for Annabelle Lee,
Yeah, I’m pinin’ for little Annie,
and pinin’ for sweet Annabelle Lee.
I’m a morbid Victorian lover,
wallowin’ in my misery.

Well, I got them Poe Boy Blues,
my face’s a perpetual frown,
Yes, I got the Poe Boy Blues,
my face’s a perpetual frown.
I ain’t felt so sad and lonely
since that Usher house fell down.

If the booze and drugs don’t get me,
It’ll be a broken heart for sure.
Yeah, if them booze and drugs don’t get me,
That ol’ broken heart will for sure.
I’m a Poe boy, baby,
and I’ll be happy Nevermore.

Mad Poets, Whale Sounds, Baseball Letdown, Trivia, and the National Book Award

2010-10-25T18:36:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that October is almost over! This autumn has flown by, helped along by a wedding, our international student, a yard sale, a handful of poetry readings, a 9th grader who's already involved in the band, orchestra and school play; and an exciting but ultimately disappointing baseball season. Seems like I have a lot to talk about this time:

Poetry: The reading at Big Blue Marble in Philly last month went well - even though I got my dates mixed up and showed up a day early! A small but appreciate group attended, and I ended up selling two chapbooks, but I spent all my proceeds at the supermarket on the way home. (Who says poetry doesn’t bring home the bacon?)

Last week we had our Quick and Dirty Poets reading at Daily Grind in Mt. Holly, featuring Tony Gruenwald, a great New Jersey poet and co-editor of Edison Literary Review. I also read as a contributor to the new issue of Mad Poets Review – their annual book party, at the Delaware County Science Museum, is always a fun event, with lots of excellent local poets and goodies too. This new issue almost didn’t get off the ground due to loss of funding, but hats off to Eileen D’Angelo and company for persevering and getting another fine issue of MPR out to the world!
I’ll be reading later this week at Croft Farm in Cherry Hill, then on November 15 at Barnes and Noble in Marlton, and finally on December 12 in South Brunswick. (I’ll get paid for that one!)
Publication-wise, the only news since last time is that my poem, “Taking It All Back”, is featured on Nic Sebastian’s website Whale Sound. Nic has a lovely British-accented speaking voice, and she did a fine job on my poem.

Although returning to Peter Murphy’s Cape May festival again this winter was very tempting, I decided to apply instead for the Palm Beach Poetry Festival this coming January. It’s a week-long conference in Delray Beach, Florida, featuring some poetic heavy hitters like Robert Pinsky, Jane Hirshfield, Dean Young, Thomas Lux, Heather McHugh, and C.D.Wright. I’m applying for a workshop, with Hirshfield and Young as my first and second choices respectively. I won’t know till mid-November if I’m accepted, but if I go I’ll be able to stay with my wife’s relatives who live right in Delray Beach.

In other poetry news, I was very happy to hear that three of the five nominees for this year’s National Book Award in poetry are poets I’ve met: Terrance Hayes and James Richardson, whose workshops I have taken, and Kathleen Graber, who has been involved (along with Richardson) in the Cape May festival, and whom we Quick and Dirty Poets featured at one of our readings a few years ago. Congratulations, all!

Baseball: Woe is me – my Phillies didn’t make it to the World Series this year. The Giants beat them in six games to take the NL pennant and go on to play the Texas Rangers. I was super-bummed till the next day, then I started to wax philosophical. The Phillies had another great year, winning more games than any other team in baseball, despite being decimated by injuries most of the season. The starting pitching has never been better, with the lineup of Halladay, Oswalt and Hamels. Halladay pitched a perfect game (the 20th in MLB history and only the second Phillie pitcher to do it) and then pitched a no-hitter in Game 1 of the divisional playoffs (only the second postseason no-hitter in history and only about the fifth time a pitcher has thrown two no-hitters in one season). He should be a shoo-in for the Cy Young Award – the Giant’s Tim Lincecum is his only competition. The downside is that offensively, the Phillies were streaky at best. They rode an incredible hot streak from September into the playoffs, but then had trouble doing anything with the bat. Even when they swept the Reds in three games for the Eastern Division title, it was by virtue of two stellar pitching performances by Halladay and Hamels, and a game the Reds threw away on errors and sloppy playing. The Giants just outplayed the Phillies, getting all the key hits that seemed to elude our boys, and their pitching was at least as good as ours. Ryan Howard got a hit here and there, but not a single homer, or even an RBI, in the post-season. So no World Series for the Phils this year, but on the other hand, the Yankees won’t be making a repeat appearance either.

Miscellaneous: If you haven’t checked out the website Sporcle, do so now, especially if you are a trivia buff. There are thousands of quizzes, mostly created by registered members like myself, and if your quiz is popular and highly rated enough, it gets “published” on the site by the administrators, which gives it a much higher profile and lots more action. I just had my first one published this week: it’s called “Different Actors, Same Role”, and as of last night it had over 39,000 hits. My screen name is bruceN, if you want to check out my other quizzes, too.

Music: It’s been a great year for music, at least the music I listen to. I got the eagerly-awaited new album from Sufjan Stevens, The Age of Adz, and it’s pretty good stuff, though not the classic that his album Illinois was. It’s a bit more “noisy” with electronics and such, but still worth a listen. “I Walked” will be the breakout song from this album.
His EP from earlier this year, All Delighted People (really the length of a full album) is also worthwhile. Other new albums that have recently caught my ear:

Herbie Hancock: The Imagine Project
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers: Mojo
Trombone Shorty: Backatown
Richard Thompson: Dream Attic
Ray LaMontagne: God Willin’ and the Creek Don’t Rise

Poem of the Month: I wrote this one at last winter’s Poetry and Prose Getaway in Cape May for James Richardson’s workshop, as I anticipated my son’s upcoming nuptials. It appears in the new issue of Mad Poet’s Review:

Hoofing

Of the 58 things I need to do before I die,
Number 6 is to dance at your wedding.
Yes, me – the guy who once asked for a Virginia Reel
at my school dance, because we learned it in Gym,
and it was the only dance I knew. I’ll stumble and sway
with your mother and your bride through a slow dance,
but later I'll need at least three beers to lubricate
my creaky joints and my reserve, and a full dervish
on the dance floor, a Brownian movement of bodies,
where I’ll slip between Uncle Jack,
who lumbers like a grizzly bear; Aunt Lois
and her date, who’ve inexplicably slid into a tango;
and the flower girl, who randomly jumps up and down,
parachuting her petticoats. I’ll be a hoofer for you –
that is, I’ll dance like an animal without toes.
I won’t do that damned Chicken Dance,
but I will bounce and celebrate to Kool & the Gang,
or any of those obligatory songs, as this ecstatic mob
thrums along with abandon, in a rented hall,
under a clear, rosy evening sky, where somewhere,
your grandmother does the tarantella.

Wedding Bells III

2010-10-05T16:03:00.000-07:00

More images from the wedding:

Wedding Bells II

2010-10-05T14:39:00.000-07:00

Here's a slide-show video of my son and daughter-in-law's wedding done by their photographer, Ted Nghiem. I never would have thought that Modest Mouse's "Float On" would make a good wedding album soundtrack, but for this one it's surprisingly effective. Also, the video really captures the joy and fun that were Jer and Gen's wedding.

Jeremy and Genevieve from Ted Nghiem on Vimeo.

Wedding Bells!

2010-09-21T04:59:00.000-07:00

Well, there’s no excuse not to blog now – a lot has been going on in the last month or two. First and foremost is #2 son’s wedding this past weekend. What a wonderful day! He and his bride have gone together for several years, and he (finally!) proposed at Christmastime last year. She’s a lovely person and they complement each other very well. The wedding was in our home town of Cherry Hill, at my wife’s home parish. Both older brothers were groomsmen and youngest brother was the altar server. Weather was picture perfect – sunny and high in the upper 70’s. The mass was beautiful and the reception was a blast – everyone commented on how much fun they had, including the 89-year-old mother of a friend of ours who spent half the evening on the dance floor.

Of course, gearing up for the big event was a bit hectic. One of the perks of being the father of the groom is that you don’t end up putting out a huge amount of money and effort, but still get much of the credit. But God bless my wife. She helped with much of the planning, especially making 72 small floral centerpieces – rose arrangements in martini glasses. The back apartment part of our house became the back of a florist shop, as well as the flower fridge – she turned the AC all the way down to keep the roses fresh, and it got below 55 degrees in there. But in the end it was all worth it, and son and new daughter-in-law are now enjoying their honeymoon in Dublin, Ireland.

The other big development is that we are hosting an international student for the year. He is from South Korea and beginning his senior year at a local Catholic high school. I was corrected early on: He’s an “international student”, not an “exchange student”, because his main objective is to complete his education here. After graduation, he hopes to attend an American college or university. So far things are going well – he’s a nice young man, curious and eager to learn with a sense of humor, and he speaks pretty good English, though we’re trying to help him improve it enough to do better on the SAT.

Poetry: My poetry has obviously had to take somewhat of a back seat to the other things going on, but there have been developments there as well: I recently read at the Manayunk Art Center in Philadelphia with two other local poets, and I have another coming up on the 24th in the Mt. Airy section of Philly. I’ve also had a few more poems accepted: The Barefoot Muse has accepted my blank-verse sonnet “Taking It All Back”, and Tilt-a-Whirl, a journal devoted to “repeating form” poetry, has accepted two poems: “Poe Boy Blues” and “All I Want”. I’m still hoping to attend at least one or two conferences or festivals in the upcoming “poetry year”, but other domestic and family matters may prevent some of that from happening.

Baseball: As big a Phillies fan as I am, I hadn’t attended a game all season till last night, when my wife’s cousin’s husband invited me to a game against the Braves, with whom the Phils are fighting for the NL East title. We had great seats – first row, second level right behind home plate. They won 3-1: Cole Hamels had another great outing (8 innings pitched, 6 strikeouts) and Brad Lidge was bringin’ it in the 9th. It was amazing to see 45,000 fans on their feet, cheering and waving their souvenir “rally towels” over their heads to spur Lidge on to get the save, putting down the Braves 1-2-3 including two strikeouts. You could feel the energy going out to him, and he even acknowledged that after the game. The Phillies are now 4 games up in first place over the Braves and their “magic number” is 8.

Music: My wife, my youngest son and I are all big fans of the men’s a cappella group Straight No Chaser. If you don’t know them by name, they’re the group of ten guys who met and performed years ago at Indiana University and reunited for a concert a few years ago. They performed an amusing version of “The Twelve Days of Christmas” that went viral and made them virtually overnight sensations. Now they’re PBS pledge-drive favorites, with two Christmas albums out and a more recent collection of pop songs. They’re an entertaining, often funny , and extremely talented group. They were artists-in-residence at Harrah’s casino in Atlantic City, and we all went to see them last month. They put on an amazing show, a song revue of pop hits from the 50’s to the present, and afterward they had a “meet-and-greet” – every one of them were there, signing autographs and chatting with fans, and they stayed till everyone in the long line got to meet them. They are a swell bunch of guys.

Poem of the Month: I would like to post the poem I wrote several months ago in anticipation of my son’s wedding, but I’m shopping it around for publication so that may have to wait. Instead, I will offer a love poem I wrote to my wife (who was also beautiful as mother of the groom). This appeared previously in the online journal Word Catalyst:

Time Travel

Maybe it's in the memory of skin -
a certain touch, chemical connection,
a circuit of nerves completed.

Maybe it's all in the mind -
a déjà vu of senses,
a re-opened file of valentines.

But when we share a serious embrace
or trade passionate kisses,
there is no need to compare

those kids in the old wedding photo
with what we see in the mirror.
Reflections are irrelevant,

time machines superfluous.
When I am in the moment of your arms,
I am nineteen again.

Miss Me?

2010-08-07T16:27:00.000-07:00

My God, has it been two months since my last blog? What a slacker! It's hard sometimes to convince yourself that you have anything interesting to say. I mean, some folks post almost daily and always have something pithy and informative to share (are you reading this, Kelly Fineman?) while others just slap anything that comes into their head up on the page, whether it's interesting, or makes sense or not. I have to find the right rhythm and balance to blogging - I doubt I could do it more than once a week. But once in two months? Shameful!

Poetry: As you may know, I wrote a poem a day in the month of April (actually, a little more than one a day) as part of the Poetry Month challenge on Robert Brewer's Poetic Asides blog. Well, he invited the participants to submit the five best poems that they wrote that month, and out of over 1000 entries, he selected the best 50 and announced the winners on his blog. Two of my poems, "According to Hoyle" and "Mementos", made the list. The only prize is bragging rights, and a possible feature interview on the blog later this year. It's a nice recognition. I also just learned today that my poem, "Rapids Again", is being accepted for next year's issue of U.S. 1 Worksheets, and I may have another poem appearing in a future issue of the formal-poetry e-zine Barefoot Muse.

I'm debating about which poetry conferences I should attend in the coming year. Of course, time and money are always critical factors - ideally I would attend them all, but I'll have to pick one or two of four I have my eye on: (1) Peter Murphy's annual Winter Getaway in Cape May in January (this upcoming year featuring poets Dorianne Laux and Patricia Smith, as well as "regular" Stephen Dunn); (2) The AWP Conference, which will be in Washington DC in February (my friend Anna Evans will be chairing a panel there); (3) The West Chester Poetry Conference, which Anna has been encouraging me for years to attend (and she's actively involved in that one too), and (4) the good ol' Philadelphia Writers Conference, which is the same week as West Chester. I'm leaning heavily toward #2 and/or #3 as they are the ones that I've never done. Oh yeah, and there's the Dodge Poetry Festival in October.

Baseball: It's been one interesting year for my Phillies - fifteen players have been on the Disabled List this season, and currently Ryan Howard, Chase Utley and Shane Victorino, all key players, are sitting it out. Pitcher Jamie Moyer is out for the season (and possibly for the career, but after all, he's an "old man" of 47, LOL). Despite all that, as of this writing they are only one game behind Atlanta for the NL East lead. After a huge team-wide slump about a month or two ago, they've started putting things together, getting consistently good pitching (and the addition of Roy Oswalt now gives them one of the best starting rotations in baseball) and some key hitting from guys who until recently were not everyday players (Ross Gload, Brian Schneider, et al.) Anyway, I expect big things if everyone can get healthy again, though I'm doubtful whether they can get back to the World Series for the third year in a row.

Music: Lots of good stuff coming out this year. Just a few of the recent albums that have caught my ear - mostly perennial favorites but also two new "finds":

Mumford and Sons - Sigh No More
The Arcade Fire - The Suburbs
Los Lobos - Tin Can Trust
Sarah McLachlan - Laws of Illusion
The Black Keys - Brothers
Tame Impala - Innerspeaker
Alejandro Escovedo - Street Songs of Love

Poem of the Every-other-month:

I think I'll dust off an "oldie but goodie" - this appeared in the online journal Red River Review several years ago:

Background

Where I live,
in this quiet pocket of
congested civilization,
even on a still night,
windless, moonless
or moon –

there is a constant hum,
subliminal roar, a rumble
like blood rushing in the ears,
coagulation of sounds
just over the threshold –

traffic, planes, air conditioners,
thunder, music, radio waves,
clouds sliding through thick air,
plates of the earth groaning –

and the murmur of souls
only one week removed,
already receding
into the noise.

Why We Should Save School Music Programs

2010-06-09T06:46:00.000-07:00

I’m quite proud of my eighth-grader’s musical accomplishments this year. I attended his middle school’s spring concerts last week (yes, that’s plural – there are so many kids and groups involved that they had to spread them over two nights), and I must say I was impressed by the virtuosity that they displayed. My son himself was in seven groups: concert band, jazz band, jazz combo, orchestra, string ensemble, chorus, and boys’ mixed chorus. One of the highlights for me was the jazz combo: about 10-12 kids performing “Moanin’ ” by Charles Mingus. Their director said that this piece, which is mostly improvisational, would be difficult even for high-schoolers to tackle, but after having heard another group perform it, they begged her to let them give it a try. After several weeks of intensive practice on this one number, they were ready. My son laid down the beat with an opening solo on the baritone sax, and the band took off from there. It was amazing – possibly the best jazz performance I’ve ever heard from a school ensemble. I also enjoyed the choral works: my son was in a boy’s a capella group who sang the old doo-wop song “Come and Go with Me” and the Straight No Chaser arrangement of Jason Mraz’s “I’m Yours”. Excellent! Both nights were filled with good music, everything from Bach (a movement from the Brandenburg Concertos) to an Iron and Wine song played by a marimba/percussion group. The second night finale – about 300 middle-schoolers singing “We Are the World” in perfect harmony – was enough to give one goose bumps. Here’s the icing on the cake: the music students went to a school music competition in Hershey PA last Friday, and they came home with first place trophies for the concert and jazz bands. Sweet!

Poetry: Not much going on lately on the poetry scene. I had to skip both of the two poetry events this weekend that I would have liked to attend - The West Chester Poetry Festival and the Philadelphia Writers Conference, partly due to parental obligations. My friend Anna Evans is going to West Chester again, and this time she will be a member of panel there. I wish I could be there to see her in action, meet some esteemed poets, and see Natalie Merchant, who is a featured performer, promoting her new album of songs based on children's poems.

Music: Run out and get (or sit down and download) Bettye LaVette's latest ablum, Interpretations: The British Rock Songbook. Ms. LaVette is in the midst of a major comeback after achieving some success in the 1960's and 1970's only to have her debut album inexplicably shelved by Stax Records in 1972. She fell on hard times for years afterward, but now she is back with a vengeance. This collection of classic British rock and pop songs, from the Beatles and The Animals to Traffic and Pink Floyd, is a tour-de-force as she puts her own interpretative touches on each one. She practically stopped the show at last year's Kennedy Center Honors when she wailed an amazing version of The Who's "Love Reign O'er Me", and she reprises it here. You may not recognize some of these songs the first time through, but once you do, you'll say, "Wow! I never heard it that way before." Her voice is an amazing instrument, and you probably will not hear a more soulful album this year.

Baseball: My Phillies seem to be mired in a major collective slump. They've already been shut out as many times this year as they were all of last season, and until a few nights ago they went through a two-week stretch where they couldn't muster up more than three runs a game. Thankfully, the pitching has been generally decent, and Roy Halladay recently tossed only the second perfect game in Phillies' history. Coincdentally, that same day I was wore a new Roy Halladay Phillies shirt, a gift from my wife, for the first time. I guess that makes it my lucky shirt, or maybe his.

Poem of the Post: Here's an "oldie" that was published in 2002 in the non-defunct print writer's magazine ByLine:

Appeal to the Captor

Dear Editor,
It has been six months since I sent you my poem.
I’ve received not a word, not a ransom note,
not even a stanza cut off and sent as a threat.

Is my poem alive and well?
When it’s returned to me, will it have lost its baby fat,
appearing instead as wiry, muscular, concise?

Or has it undergone some metamorphosis,
a bird, perhaps, feathering its nest with string
and self-addressed stamped envelopes?

Has it ensconced itself in your in-box?
Has it transformed to sconces itself,
like those eerie ones in La Belle et Le Bète,

the gilt-coated arms that move with you
as you cross the room, shadows shifting,
changing the lighting of walls and words?

Send me some word,
a photograph of it holding yesterday’s newspaper;
a tape of it, reading itself back to me.

Even a rejection slip – you pick the format:
wrapped around a rock through my window,
letters cut and pasted from magazines.

Until then, I await the day when it appears,
smiling wanly at my doorstep,
or singing choruses to the world on your page.

P.S.: Music and a Poem

2010-05-18T06:46:00.000-07:00

An addendum to yesterday's post, which I didn't have time for then:

I went to my friend Kelly Fineman's reading at Barnes and Noble in Marlton last night. She was great, and read poems from her manuscript-in-progress: a collection of poetry on the life of Jane Austen. Kelly also has an excellent blog, which you can find here.

Music: Well, the music year is already about 3/8ths over (really - figure it out!) and already there are a bunch of candidates for best albums, so it looks like another good year for music. Here are some of my early favorites:

The Hold Steady – Heaven is Whenever
Beach House – Teen Dream
The National – High Violet
Frightened Rabbit – The Winter of Mixed Drinks
Drive-By Truckers – The Big To-Do
Yeasayer – Odd Blood
The New Pornographers – Together
Natalie Merchant – Leave Your Sleep
Spoon – Transference
Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings – I Learned the Hard Way
Jimi Hendrix – Valleys of Neptune
Vampire Weekend – Contra
Straight No Chaser – With a Twist
Dr. Dog - Shame, Shame
Broken Bells – Broken Bells

Natalie Merchant's new album, by the way, is a collection of children's poems set to music - poems by the likes of Edward Lear, e.e. cummings and Robert Louis Stevenson, along with some lesser-known poets. It's a really fine 2-disc collection with a beautiful hardcover booklet that includes the poems and bios of all the poets. Ms. Merchant will also be a featured artist at the West Chester Poetry Conference (with which my friend Anna Evans is also involved) next month.

Poem of the Fortnight: I thought I'd share my poem that got such a big response when I read it at the Celebration of Literary Journals on Sunday (see blog below). This was originally published in Up and Under: the QND Review:

The Conjoined Twin

Crown to crown, our skulls
a figure-eight, we were bound
by bone and red trees of blood.

I felt your cries, and strained to find you,
always over my head. Sometimes
we chattered in the secret language of twins.

But the doctors - so many doctors –
decided it best to cut you away from me.
In our long sleep, they carved at skin and bone,

reconnected tissue, sewed and threaded capillaries,
relieved our brains from their morbid embrace.
But while I slept, your heart surrendered.

Sometimes I look up for you, sister,
but you have not come back.
The blood we shared still runs in my veins,

and memories flicker in and out,
the loss I felt as they opened, then closed
my head to the heavens.

Journal Fest!

2010-05-17T19:07:00.000-07:00

I just returned from the “Poetry Festival: A Celebration of Literary Journals” in West Caldwell, NJ. This annual event is organized by poet Diane Lockward, and features about a dozen poetry journals from the NY/NJ region. Editors of the journals have tables to sell their issues, give out submission guidelines and network with poets. They also invite two poets who have been published in their journal to read two poems each during an afternoon-long reading. There are also poets’ books for sale, refreshments and an assortment of freebies. It’s always a great way to spend an afternoon. I went with four of the five members of my poetry group, Quick and Dirty Poets. Two of our members, Kendall Bell and Anna Evans, represented The Raintown Review and Up and Under, respectively. Up and Under is our group’s own journal, and Don Kloss and I represented the journal at the reading. We were the last readers of the afternoon on the schedule, and Don got a good response for his two poems before I came up. I made some self-effacing remark about the pressure associated with being the closing poet of the festival, and then I read my two poems, “What to Play at My Funeral” and “The Conjoined Twin”. I was amazed at the response I got to the latter poem – about ten people came up to me afterward and told me how much they loved it, and two of them bought my chapbook on the spot, based on my reading of that poem. I sold three books in all that day, though I spent all the proceeds on other poet’s books and sample copies of journals. It was good to see a lot of poet friends and acquaintances there too. If you are within a few hours’ drive of this festival (usually held in May), I urge you to attend next time. Click here for Diane’s website if you would like to keep up with her news:

Also, here’s a list, with links if available, of this year’s participating journals:

Edison Literary Review

Exit 13

Journal of New Jersey Poets

Lips

New York Quarterly

Paterson Literary Review

The Raintown Review

Schuylkill Valley Journal

Tiferet

Up and Under: The QND Review

US 1 Worksheets

38 Poems in 30 Days!

2010-05-05T06:46:00.000-07:00

That's my final total for National Poetry Month and the Poem-a-Day Challenge. It's exhilirating for me to be that prolific, because lately I've been writing one or two a week at the most. Again, not all of them will be worthy of publication, but that's not really the point. The point is to write for writing's sake and separate the wheat from the chaff. I have about half-a-dozen favorites that are probably ready, or almost ready, to share with the world at large, and at least half-a-dozen more that will be ready with some revision. I sent five of them off to Robert Brewer of Poetic Asides, who promised to publish his 50 favorites from among all the participants of his challenge. He also will declare a "Poet Laureate" from the April challenge. I don't expect to win that honor, but it would be nice to have at least one of my poems recognized among the best of the month. We'll see.

I'm making this a short one, but will still share another poem from April with y'all. This is just a light verse, but a timely one:

(Dis)connected

I blog, I tweet, I text,
I devour whatever is next
in the techno-social soup
that links me to any group.
I’m surfing the net all day
to see who wants to play.
My thumbs are working like mad
to message all the friends I’ve had.
The world is mine for connectionto
anyone of my selection.
My list of friends is extensive,
my tech knowledge comprehensive.
It’s truly a “global village”,
only why do I still feel so lonely?

NaPoMo Update: Review of My Book!

2010-04-29T06:51:00.000-07:00

I was very happy to get the new issue of the annual poetry journal, Philadelphia Poets, this week. Last year they published my poem, “Record Store”, and although I don’t have a poem in this year’s issue (#16), editor Rosemary Cappello wrote a very positive review of my latest chapbook, Breathing Out. She said, among other things:

In Breathing Out, a collection of 24 poems, the reader gets a glimpse of the talent of Bruce W. Niedt, a poet who is obviously moved to write about everything under the sun and then some. Niedt has the ability of studying an object—anything from an earth-bound salad bowl to the far-off planet Mars—picking its “brain” and communicating for it. This goes for people as well, whether they’re the long-gone Chinese poet Li Po or the contemporary “Old Man at Bedtime.” […]

When it comes to creating the perfect last line that not only sums up the poem’s intent but adds a thoughtful twist, Niedt is second to none.[…]

Yes, the subjects of Niedt’s poems run the gamut. There’s even one commemorating “Mr. Peanut [in] Atlantic City” and his clocks, “All the Clocks in my House Are Set to Different Times,” which happen to be two of my favorites in this collection. But then, so are all the others mentioned here. Bruce Niedt has proven his versatility as a poet in this impressive collection.

Thanks, Rosemary!

As expected, it’s been a busy Poetry Month – as of today I’ve written 35 poems in 28 days for the annual “Poem-a-Day Challenge”. Two more to go! I also invaded the Big Blue Marble Bookstore in Mt. Airy PA last Friday with my Quick and Dirty posse – Anna, Kendall, Andrea, former (and still honorary) member Rachel, and myself. We rocked their socks! It was a respectable group of about 15, most of them members of Mad Poets Society, who sponsored the event, and it went very well – some of us even sold some of our books. (I’m on the calendar to return there for a solo reading in September.) Tonight is our monthly reading series at The Daily Grind in Mt. Holly featuring Bill Wunder. Unfortunately, I can’t get to all the events that I would like to attend – there are two this Sunday at the same time to which I’m invited, but I probably won’t make either one.

My aforementioned poet friend Rachel Bunting, by the way, has just won the Best of the Net award for her poem, “The Apiary”. Way to go, Rach! (I tried to post the link but it doesn't seem to work from where I'm writing.)

I had a decent birthday on Tuesday, despite hobbling around most of the day on a strained knee. It was nice to get a lot of best wishes from my Facebook and Poetic Asides friends, and I had a nice quiet celebration with my wife and youngest son. (The other three sons called and wished me happy birthday). It was pretty low-key, just the way I wanted it.

So how about a poem? I’ll offer the one that I wrote my birthday. The prompt from Poetic Asides was to write a poem about hope or hopelessness. This is a “parody”, if you will, of Emily Dickinson’s “Hope is the thing with feathers…”

The Thing with Fur

Hopelessness, the thing with fur,
would stalk me in the wood,
and threaten like a predator
that never comes to good,

and track me with its yellow eyes;
I’d stumble on the trail
and it would pounce – I’d be its prize,
my flight to no avail.

I’ve heard its howl – it fills the moor,
like some soul-stealing wraith,
but I need only close my door
and fuel my fire with faith.

NaPoWriMo Marches On!

2010-04-22T20:58:00.000-07:00

I feel like the world's worst blogger. How can I expect to have readership if no one knows when I'll post again? Once a month certainly isn't enough, yet I feel if I post daily or even weekly i won't enough to say to be interesting. I need to find the right balance.

Anyway, enough of that. Once again I'm doing National Poetry Month's Poem-a-day Challenge, and doing quite well, thank you - 26 poems in 22 days (and that's counting a themed group of three haiku as one). None of them will help win me the Pulitzer Prize, but as the estimable Peter Murphy says, "Give yourself permission to write crap." I hope there will be at least 5-10 decent poems, or poems with potential, contained in this batch. I'm participating in the Poetic Asides blog again this year, but frankly I haven't been real excited about most of Robert Brewer's writing prompts. They do get me started, though, I'll give them credit for that.

April is every bit the busy month I expected it to be. Sunday the 18th my friends Anna and Kendall and I went to New York to represent Kendall's Maverick Duck Press at a reading at ABC No Rio in the Lower East Side. It was - how should I say - interesting. The venue was a building that was a former "squat" and on the verge of being condemned, and the audience - let's just say they barely outnumbered the three of us. But they loved our reading and they PAID us for our appearance. That's right - PAID for reading poetry! Tomorrow night I read with the Quick and Dirty Poets at the Big Blue Marble on Carpenter St. in Philly, and next Friday the 30th our group has their monthly reading series at the Daily Grind in Mt. Holly, featuring Bill Wunder.

Music: Listening and downloading stuff - the "new" Jimi Hendrix (previously unreleased studio performance of new and cover material), the new Dr Dog, and a couple of "discovery" bands (for me, at least), The Dodos and Field Music. Keep an eye out for new albums by Caribou and New Pornographers.

Poetry: How about one of the poems I've written this month? This is about the late great poet Lucille Clifton:

Miss Lucille

We will miss you, Miss Lucille,
who paid homage to your hips

and made ladies proud of themselves
no matter what their size,

who wrote of indignities and injustice
to your people and to all people,

who I will always remember
meeting, your dignity and grace.

May your own boat carry you
to the “water waving forever”.

We will miss you, Miss Lucille,
but we will find you in your poems.

April Showers Bring... Poetry Readings!

2010-03-29T12:24:00.000-07:00

Time to blog again! I just wish I had the time to do this more often. Sometimes I do, but then I rationalize by saying, “Nah, my life’s too boring for people to read about every week.” I shouldn’t worry though – I’m sure there are a lot more blogs out there more boring than mine.

April is around the corner, and it looks like it’s going to be a busy poetry month for me. Not only do I plan to do the Poem-a-day Challenge again, but I’ve got a handful of readings and other events lined up in April and into May: April 11 I host my poetry group, the Quick and Dirty Poets, for our monthly meeting. On April 18 Anna Evans and I will read at a place called ABC No Rio in NYC; on April 23 our group reads for the Mad Poets Society at the Big Blue Marble in Philly; and April 30 we have our regular reading series at the Daily Grind in Mt. Holly NJ, featuring poet and Schuylkill Valley Journal editor Bill Wunder. Then on May 2 is the launch party for the new issue of Schuylkill Valley Journal, and on May 16 Kendall Bell and I read at the annual NJ journal festival in Warren County organized by Diane Lockward. I have events coming up in July and December too – more on those later.

I attended the launch party yesterday for US 1 Worksheets at the Princeton Public Library. This is their 55th issue – they’ve been publishing their anthology since 1972. It’s a handsome perfect-bound edition of over 100 pages of excellent poetry – Nancy Scott and the other editors and staff do a fine job every year. (The new issue isn’t on their website as of this writing, but you can still visit them at http://us1poets.com/ .) I read my poem from the issue, “Trivia”, and got an enthusiastic response.

We also had our own launch party for our journal, Up and Under: The QND Review, at our regular haunt, the Daily Grind. It was rather sparsely attended, partly because there were other poetry events going on the in area, but we still had a good time. Again, we don’t have this latest issue (#5) on our website yet, but you can visit us by clicking the link on my sidebar.

Music: I got a package of indie music from Amazon which included three new releases: Teen Dream by Beach House, Vol. 2 by She & Him (Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward), and the self-titled album by Broken Bells (James Mercer of The Shins, and “Danger Mouse”). Of those three, my strongest first impression is of Beach House, a really fine collection of dream-pop songs. At times they remind me of The Swell Season without Glen Hansard’s sometimes histrionic singing. Other times they remind me of no one else. Broken Bells is an interesting project and has some occasionally catchy hooks, but I’m still having trouble really warming up to it. She & Him is pleasant if not exceptional – Zooey wrote most of the songs herself this time out, and she deserves credit for that, but some of them are frankly forgettable.

I also got my first ever Chuck Berry collection (the “Definitive Collection” from Chess Records – 30 songs including all of the hits). I was inspired by my son’s school project, in which he was supposed to suggest a modern pop song as a new National Anthem. I suggested Berry’s “Back in the USA” and he ran with it, but it also spurred his interest in the artist as well. He was surprised to learn that two songs by another of his favorite artists, the Beatles (“Rock and Roll Music” and “Roll Over Beethoven”) were not Beatles originals, but covers of Berry songs.

Poem of the Blog: Here’s the one that is in the new issue of US 1 Worksheets:

Trivia

Who was the first
How many
What is the word for
Who won
When did
Can you name the
Who is the only
In what year did
Where would you find
Which of these is
How many times
Where in the world did you
When did you think
What is the matter with
Why in God’s name
What kind of question
How dare you
Do you expect me
Why should I
How am I supposed to
Who do you think you are?

Oscar Extra and Kudos for a Friend

2010-03-09T13:30:00.000-08:00

A little belated, perhaps, but I have to sound off about the Oscars, since I'm such an Oscar junkie. I watched the whole show the other night, as I usually do every year, and God help me, I even watched some of the "red carpet" pre-show. ("Who are you wearing?") I’ve only seen three of the nominated Best Pictures so far, and I was kind of rooting for Avatar, which I just saw this weekend.

Highlights:
- T Bone Burnett and Ryan Bingham winning for Best Song
- South Jersey’s own Michael Giacchino winning for Best Score (“Up”) and his great acceptance speech
- Sandra Bullock’s upset win for Best Actress
- Kathryn Bigelow being the first woman to win Best Director (and she looked fabulous)
- The horror movie montage
- The tribute to John Hughes
- Ben Stiller’s Avatar makeup
- James Taylor singing “In My Life” to the “let’s-see-who-died” montage
- The new format, started last year, where fellow actors come onstage to do a mini-tribute to each of the Best Actor/Best Actress nominees

Lowlights:
- Jeff Bridges’ acceptance speech: It was sweet that he thanked his late parents, and I’m glad he won, but he just went on, and on, and on….
- What’s-her-name the costume designer who began her speech, “I already have two of these…”: she seemed really full of herself.
- The woman who "Kanye'd" the director of Oscar-winning doc Music by Prudence during his acceptance speech. Is this becoming some kind of trend?
- Omitting the "Lifetime Achievement" awards from the main ceremony. It was always a heartfelt and moving segment, and I would have loved to see tributes to honorees Lauren Bacall and Roger Corman.
- Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin co-hosting: They were often funny, but just as often they seemed strained and awkward together. The producers should have picked one or the other.

Fashion Watch:
I'm no couture expert but I know what I like, and apparently any actress with a last name ending in "z" had the inside track: Penelope Cruz, Cameron Diaz, and Jennifer Lopez all looked fabulous. But Sarah Jessica Parker's dress was hideous, IMHO, and Barbra Streisand looked like a matronly frump.
Helen Mirren and Meryl Streep tied for the "classy lady"award.

Some trivia: What do the following classic movies have in common?

2001: A Space Odyssey
Psycho
Glory
Some Like It Hot
Singin' in the Rain
The African Queen
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
A Hard Day's Night
The Manchurian Candidate
Modern Times

Answer: None of them were nominated for Best Picture by the Academy.

What "profession" has been most likely to win an actress an Oscar?
Answer: Hooker - 10 actresses have won Oscars for their portrayal of "ladies of the night" - the last was Charlize Theron for Monster.

Now for the kudos: Congrats to my friend Kelly Fineman, whose poem "Inside the New Mall" won 3rd prize in the annual Writer's Digest Poetry Competition! Visit Kelly's blog at http://kellyrfineman.blogspot.com/

Extra: Overdue Poetry News

2010-03-05T06:47:00.000-08:00

For some time now, I’ve been a “regular” on Robert Brewer’s Poetic Asides blog on the Writer’s Digest website. It’s one of the best poetry blogs out there, and he has kept me going with his weekly writing prompts. Twice a year, in April and November, he does a “Poem-a-Day Challenge”, and I have participated daily in each one for the last couple of years. Last April he had a special challenge where he announced that the best poems of that month would be picked by a team of guest judges and compiled into an “eBook” of the winners. He had no idea what kind of response he would get. More than 1000 poets submitted over 25,000 poems, so the task of winnowing through them was a daunting one indeed. (I was one of the participants who volunteered to slog through a “slush pile” of entries and pick the best 50 out of about 800 - just for one day!) This workload, combined with other personal and professional priorities, prevented him from accomplishing the ultimate goal of picking one daily winner and publishing the eBook. However, yesterday he finally announced the five finalists for each daily prompt. It’s an honor just to make this list, considering the volume of entries – as Robert said, the odds of making the list at all were about 0.6%. That said, I was more than happy that not one, but two of my poems made the final list: “The Demoiselle Cranes”, which I consider the best poem I wrote last April; and “Those Summer Fridays”, a parody of “Those Winter Sundays” by Robert Hayden. A few of my real-life poet friends also made the list, like Tammy Paolino, Joseph Harker, and Donna Vorreyer (who also made the list twice). I’m glad Robert finally gave this contest a sense of closure, since it was hanging over his head for so long. I’m grateful that his prompts have helped spur me to write some good stuff over the past two or three years. Oh yeah, and another poem I wrote during the April challenge, “Never Say”, was recently accepted for publication by Edison Literary Review.

"Snow had fallen, Snow on snow, Snow on snow..."

2010-03-02T13:38:00.000-08:00

It seems like such a vicious cycle: I don’t post often on my blog because it doesn’t get much activity, but it probably doesn’t get much activity because I don’t poet that often. So if I promise to post more often, will folks start visiting and commenting more? Maybe it’s worth a shot. One thing’s for sure: once a month on the average isn’t often enough.

It’s been one heck of a winter – most snow on record in one season here in the Philly-South Jersey area. I think we had three major storms that dumped between one and two feet of snow each (and a predicted fourth one last week that fortunately turned out to be not that bad). That’s almost unheard of around here – over 65 inches since December, I believe. At least until recently, we had more snow this winter than they’d had in Maine, or in Vancouver for the Olympics. Thank goodness for March, though we’re not out of the woods just yet. One thing’s for sure: I am no longer wondering why I bought a snow blower about four winters ago. (Note: the title quote is from Christina Rossetti's poem "In the Bleak Midwinter" - some of you may know it from Gustav Holst's hymn arrangement, played at Christmas season.)

One of the bright spots this winter was the engagement party we threw for my son and his fiancée. We rented a very nice banquet hall, did all the food and beverages and entertainment ourselves (with help from some friends and family), and had about 70-75 guests. They were very happy with it.

Poetry News: I do have some publications coming up this year in Edison Literary Review, US 1 Worksheets, Schuylkill Valley Journal, and (if they get some funding) Mad Poets Review. I’m still waiting for my poems to appear in a future issue of The Lyric. I did enjoy a formal poetry gathering last month at the Mannyunk Art Center, hosted by Peter Krok of the SVJ, and which I attended with friend Anna Evans, an estimable formalist who gave a brief talk about Philip Larkin and Edna St. Vincent Millay. She has also been running a series of formal poetry workshops over there. Also, our group’s journal, Up and Under: The QND Review, has its launch party next month, and we have another excellent issue coming out, if I say so myself. My poem “What to Play at My Funeral” will be included, along with a poem by my son, who uses a pseudonym. I’ve been filling my pocket planner with upcoming poetry events, and it looks like a busy year in the making – I’ve been invited to a few readings, including a co-feature with Nancy Scott at the South Brunswick Library in December. This is also the year of the biannual Dodge Poetry Festival, so that’s on my radar too. The only downside is that I feel I’ve become rather lazy with my writing work ethic – not too productive lately – even the weekly prompt from Poetic Asides is a struggle sometimes. Oh yeah, that reminds me: Robert Brewer of Poetic Asides cited one of my recent prompt poems, “Taking It All Back” on a blog-radio show interview recently, and I got such good feedback, including from my critique group, that I retooled it as a blank-verse sonnet (suggested by Anna) and sent it off as a submission. We’ll see what happens.

Music: The music year has got off to a rather slow start. Other than the new Spoon and Vampire Weekend (both of which I enjoyed but don’t feel compelled to rave about), there’s not much new stuff yet to excite me. I did, however, enjoy doing a “love songs” mix on my iPod for my son’s engagement party – anything pop, rock, and even some jazz from the 1930’s right up to the present. I even burned some CD’s from the playlist to give away as gifts. A sample playlist:

Love Songs of the 80’s
Addicted to Love - Robert Palmer
Dancing in the Dark – Bruce Springsteen
Everyday I Write the Book – Elvis Costello
Genius of Love – Tom-Tom Club
She Drives Me Crazy – Fine Young Cannibals
Higher Love – Steve Winwood
In Your Eyes – Peter Gabriel
Head Over Heels – The Go Gos
Head Over Heels – Tears for Fears
Kiss on My List – Hall and Oates
I Just Called to Say I Love You – Stevie Wonder
Smooth Operator – Sade
Kokomo – The Beach Boys
Have I Told You Lately – Van Morrison
Woman – John Lennon
The Longest Time – Billy Joel
You’ll Accomp’ny Me – Bob Seger

Poem of the Month: Spring Training has begun! My Phillies should be contenders again this year, especially after signing Roy Halladay, arguably the best starting pitcher in baseball. What does this have to do with poetry? Well, to bide my time till the season begins, I just finished the book Baseball Haiku, an anthology edited by Cor Van den Heuvel and Nanae Tamura. It’s a collection of Japanese and English-language haiku and senryu on the subject. The Japanese have been writing haiku about baseball since the late 19th Century, starting with Shiki, one of the modern haiku masters who is also credited with helping popularize the sport in Japan. Jack Kerouac is credited with writing the first American baseball haiku. the editors argue that baseball and haiku are such a good fit because both take place in natural settings (grass fields, sandlots, etc.) and both emphasize the “moment”. This entertaining collection inspired me to write a few of my own:

time called –
a stray cat
steals second base

Star-spangled Banner –
while the shortstop sings along
the pitcher chews gum

extra innings –
manager swats at a bee
with a scorecard

spring rain
nourishes outfield grass –
no game today

No One Ever Thanked Him (My Favorite Poem)

2010-01-20T11:17:00.000-08:00

I posted this on my blog on the Red Room writers' website, but I thought I'd post here too, so those who read it (both of you) might see it too. Red Room had a weekly writing challenge/contest to write about your favorite poem - why it has been important in your life, etc.
Here's my entry:

As a teenager and young college student, I couldn’t have been much more alienated from my father. He was the personification of everything that was anathema to me at the time: a crew-cut gun enthusiast, hunter and NRA member with a strict hand and conservative views. Our relationship for many years was chilly at best. Of course, we both mellowed with age, and things thawed out somewhat. It wasn’t till the last years of his life, when heavy smoking took its toll and he lost a leg to circulatory disease, that I realized he wouldn’t be around forever, and it was time to mend fences. I came to recognize that the estrangement we had developed wasn’t entirely his fault. I don’t know if I completely succeeded in reconciling with him, and I wasn’t with him at the end, so I was left with an unsettling feeling of unfinished business. Maybe that’s why Robert Hayden’s gently magnificent poem, “Those Winter Sundays”, speaks to me. Here the narrator recalls his father who, after working all week, got up early on Sunday to make sure his family was comfortable:

Sundays too my father got up early
and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold,
then with cracked hands that ached
from labor in the weekday weather made
banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him.

That last sentence, stated so matter-of-factly, is the whole gist of the poem. It made me reflect on my relationship with my own father, and how little I thanked him for providing for my mother, my sisters and me, and the little things that were all but invisible to me at the time.

I’d wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking.
When the rooms were warm, he’d call,
and slowly I would rise and dress,
fearing the chronic angers of that house…

Boy, did I know about chronic angers of a house! My father was a strict disciplinarian, and that was perhaps one aspect of him that drove me away as I matured. My parents’ marriage was strained, and they separated and divorced after I went away to college. I was elated to leave, and I reveled in my newfound independence.

Speaking indifferently to him,
who had driven out the cold
and polished my good shoes as well.
What did I know, what did I know
of love’s austere and lonely offices?

"Speaking indifferently” so concisely encapsulates the average teenager’s emotional detachment from his or her parents at that time of life, and I was no exception. But then we’re back to the little things the father did for the narrator – warming the house and polishing his shoes. The last two lines are an emotional wallop – what, indeed, did I know about all that went into parenthood, and how much thankless work and drudgery is a part of that? And most importantly, how much of it was driven by love? My father was not a demonstrative man, so I never really factored “love” into the equation. But now, as the parent of four boys myself, it makes so much sense. “Those Winter Sundays” is one of the most moving poems ever written, yet it moves quietly, like a Sunday morning. All that I have left to say is: Thank you, Mr. Hayden. And thank you, Dad.

2010 Already?

2010-01-18T19:54:00.000-08:00

I need to keep this blog from collecting cobwebs! Well, there's plenty to talk about this time. I had a fine holiday season - my wife and family surprised me with my first HDTV and Blu-ray player, and we spent a few days after Christmas in Williamsburg, VA, one of our favorite vacation spots. Oh yeah, and Son #2 got engaged! They're planning a September wedding.

Most recently, though, I attended the 17th Annual Winter Poetry and Prose Getaway in Cape May, NJ, three days of intensive workshops, special events, and assorted fun at the Grand Hotel in Cape May, all organized by the estimable Peter Murphy. I only attended once before, in 2003, so I felt I was overdue to return. The drawing card for me this year was that poet Mark Doty was a featured guest and also was leading two workshops. I just missed getting in (2nd on the waiting list) but I did get into a workshop with Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Stephen Dunn. It was an excellent experience, as were the workshops with James Richardson and Catherine ("Cat") Doty (a very distant relation to Mark, I learned). I got to hang with poetic friends and acquaintances, and made some new friends too (shout-out especially to Christine), and got a few decent poems to bring home as well. Even the open mic readings were a higher caliber than your average bookstore/coffee bar event. It's just great to immerse yourself in an environment of like-minded creative people for a few days. Oh yes, and I did get to meet Mr. Doty - a real thrill for me. Tomorrow: back to the real world.

In other poetry news, I have a couple of online publications this month: two poems appear in the new issue of Fox Chase Review, and five of my "Holy Tango" poems (see previous posts) appear in the new issue of Sunken Lines.

Music: Not much to report this time - looking forward to getting and listening to new albums by Spoon and Vampire Weekend.

Poem of the Month: Let's call it what it is, all right? This one is just for fun and was inspired by a writing prompt from the Poetic Asides blog:

I Thinks Therefore I Yam What I Yam

I’m havin’ doubts about meself, Doc.
Foist, I seems to have a thing for skinny goils,
I mean Olive looks anor-ex-kic, don’t she?
An’ Bluto – why is he always pickin’ a fight?
Maybe he’s just got anger issues.
I worries ‘bout Swee’Pea –
I mean, who’s his real father?
An’ sometimes I feels real stingy –
I should lends Wimpy some money
fer that hamboiger.

I gotta do somethin’ about these
over-developed forearms,
an’ maybe I needs glasses
to gets rid o’ this squint,
an’ some cos-mextic soigery
to reduce me chin.
I gotta gives up smokin’,
and y know, I’ve been outta
the Navy fer years;
it’s time to ditch the sailor suit.
This cravin’ for spinach –
maybe I just gots an iron defish-cancy.
An’ someday I gotta do somethin’
about me speech impeg-iment.

What’s that? You think I’m right?
I’m showin’ insight an’ great progress?
Well, blow me down!

December Already?

2009-12-02T07:20:00.000-08:00

Once again I completed a poem-a-day challenge in November, “sponsored” once again by Robert Brewer of the Poetic Asides blog. November was his second annual “chapbook challenge”, with the object being to write enough poems to compile a chapbook. Themes are always a plus, but not required. Last year I tried writing on a theme (music), but this year it was a struggle just writing a poem a day, let alone on a theme, in fact I ran about two or three days behind for most of the month. But I did average 30 poems in 30 days, some of which actually turned out to be not bad. I’ll post one of them below.

My poetry group, Quick and Dirty Poets, is still reading for our annual journal, Up and Under: The QND Review, so if you are interested in submitting, go to http://www.quickanddirtypoets.com/.

Thanks to my friend Kelly Fineman for giving me props for my new book on her blog, which you can find here. I’m impressed by anyone who can keep a daily blog, and hers is one of the best I’ve read.

Music: It’s the holiday season, and time for all the tired old musical chestnuts to be trucked out and played ad nauseam. Don’t’ get me wrong: I love Christmas music, and I have a CD collection to prove it, but I understand how people get tired of the 113th version of “White Christmas” or “Winter Wonderland”. That’s why I’m always on the lookout for seasonal tunes that may a little off the beaten path. This season I’ve been enjoying Holiday Spirit by Straight No Chaser, an a cappella men’s group that apparently has been a Youtube hit with their amusing version of “Twelve Days of Christmas”. They do a very pleasant doo-wop/jazz presentation, and Holiday Spirit is actually their album from last year – they have another out this year.

On the other hand, I was shocked by how bad Bob Dylan’s new Christmas album is. I love the man – he has written some of the greatest songs in pop music history, and I still listen to much of his earlier work. But let’s face it: he’s in his late 60’s, and his voice is shot. This can be forgiven when he’s singing his own great compositions, but when he croaks his way through an octave on some hoary old holiday tunes – well, I’d rather be waterboarded.

Here’s my latest best-of list. I’ve done best albums of the year and the decade, so now I present my votes for best songs of 2009:

1. Percussion Gun – White Rabbits
2. The Rake’s Song – The Decemberists
3. Sugarfoot – Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears
4. Summertime Clothes – Animal Collective
5. Sleepyhead – Passion Pit
6. The Great Defector – Bell X1
7. Lisztomania – Phoenix
8. Pulling on a Line – Great Lake Swimmers
9. Slow Burning Crimes – East Hundred
10. I Live in a Lot of Places – Woodpigeon
11. They Done Wrong, We Done Wrong – White Rabbits
12. I and Love and You – Avett Brothers
13. People Got a Lot of Nerve – Neko Case
14. Two Weeks – Grizzly Bear
15. Little Bribes – Death Cab for Cutie
16. Detroit ’67 – Sam Roberts
17. Eden Was a Garden – Roman Candle
18. Bastard of Midnight – The Damnwells
19. My Girls – Animal Collective
20. Low Rising – The Swell Season
21. Belated Promise Ring - Iron & Wine
22. Who Will Comfort Me – Melody Gardot
23. Kingdom of the Animals Iron & Wine
24. Bluish – Animal Collective
25. The Reeling – Passion Pit
26. 1901 – Phoenix
27. Actor Out of Work – St. Vincent
28. Wicked Blood – Sea Wolf
29. Fitz and the Dizzyspells – Andrew Bird
30. The Wanting Comes in Waves/Repaid – The Decemberists
31. Shot in the Back of the Head - Moby
32. The Changeling – A.C. Newman
33. My Night with the Prostitute from Marseille – Beirut
34. Blood Bank – Bon Iver
35. Can’t Go Back Now – The Weepies
36. Cocaine and Ashes – Son Volt
37. Bluebird – Ryan Bingham and the Dead Horses
38. I’m Broke - Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears
39. Why Modern Radio is A-OK – Roman Candle
40. All of My Days and All of My Days Off – A.C. Newman

Poetry: As promised, here's one from my November poem-a-day project:

Magnolia

…you sweet thing, you’re driving me mad… J.J. Cale

If we had built a mythology around you,
we may have said you were a musician
with long fingers, all the better to play
the harp or the lute. Perhaps you
wore flowers in your long brown hair,
and you bathed in a sweet perfume,
one that all men would find irresistible.
But for some transgression,
perhaps rejecting a young god’s advances,
you were transformed to a majestic tree.
Your long leafy fingers, dark green,
keep their color all winter, and in spring,
you put magnificent blossoms in your hair,
petal-bowls of white velvet,
with an intoxicating fragrance
we cannot resist, even if it lasts only a day.

OK, I'm Over It Now....

2009-11-19T19:34:00.000-08:00

Yes, my beloved Phillies bit the dust, losing the World Series 4 games to 2 to the Best Team Money Can Buy, the New York Yankees. In all honesty, the Yankees played like the better team. The Phils didn't get the consistent pitching they needed (other than from Cliff Lee), and their bullpen just couldn't do the job. (So much for Brad Lidge's "comeback".) Yankees pitchers tied up the Phils' left-handed bats (except for Utley) - Howard for the most part looked just awful at the plate. Oh well, it was still a good run - the first time the Phillies won back-to-back National League pennants, and I have to say they still exceeded my expectations this year. So you Yankees fans go right ahead and gloat over your 27th World Championship - it's easy to root for a perennial winner.

Poetry: It's been a busy week for me - went to the launch of Edison Literary Review's Issue #8, which includes my peom "Mosquito Truck", on Sunday the 15th, at South Brunswick NJ Library. It was a fine event featuring ELR honchos Gina and John Larkin and Tony Gruenwald, as well as contributors like me and an open mic. Monday the 16th I was featured poet at Poetry in the Round, Barnes and Noble in Marlton NJ. Not a real big turnout, but I did sell four copies of my book afterward. Wednesday was editorial meeting for Quick and Dirty Poets and our journal Up and Under: The QND Review. We're accepting submissions until December 31 if you are interested - click the link above.

My new book, Breathing Out, is finally out and looks great! Thanks to Leah and Kevin Maines of Finishing Line Press for a great job. Visit their website if you would like a copy but haven't ordered yet. It's also available on Amazon.com.

I've also received word on two acceptances: "Dream" and "Monster Accosted by Telemarketers" have been accepted by Fox Chase Review for their next issue, and Schuylkill Valley Journal has also accepted a poem of mine, though I will be changing the title.

I've been doing Robert Brewer's Poem-a-day Chapbook Challenge on the Poetic Asides blog - running a couple of days behind, but managing to get a poem out almost every day.

Music: Well, most of the musical pundits from various publications and websites have released their best-of-the-year album lists, even though it's still the last half of November, so why shouldn't I be any different? So here is my list of top 20 albums and songs of the year. These are always hard because intellectually I can appreciate some of the albums that are declared "best" by the so-called experts, but I just went with my personal favorites - no apologies:

Albums
1. Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion
2. White Rabbits - It's Frightening
3. Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
4. Decemberists - The Hazards of Love
5. Bell X1- Blue Lights on the Runway
6. Iron and Wine - Around the Well
7. Various Artists - Dark Was the Night
8. Passion Pit - Manners
9. Neko Case - Middle Cyclone
10. The Swell Season - Strict Joy
11. Death Cab for Cutie - The Open Door (EP)
12. Woodpigeon - Treasury Library Canada
13. Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears - Tell ‘em What Your Name Is!
14. Roman Candle - Oh Tall Tree in the Ear
15. Yo La Tengo - Popular Songs
16.Moby - Wait for Me
17. Beirut - March of the Zapotec and Realpeople Holland
18.Melody Gardot - My One and Only Thrill
19. Sam Roberts - Love at the End of the World
20.Son Volt - American Central Dust

Songs
1. White Rabbits - "Percussion Gun"
2. Decemberists - "The Rake's Song"
3. Animal Collective - "Summertime Clothes"
4. Passion Pit - "Sleepyhead"
5. Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears - "Sugarfoot"
6. Bell X1 - "The Great Defector"
7. East Hundred - "Slow Burning Crimes"
8. Phoenix - "Lisztomania"
9. Great Lake Swimmers - "Pulling on a Line"
10. Woodpigeon - "I Live a Lot of Places"
11. White Rabbits - "They Done Wrong, We Done Wrong"
12.Neko Case - " People Got a Lot of Nerve"
13. Grizzly Bear - "Two Weeks"
14. Death Cab for Cutie - "Little Bribes"
15.Sam Roberts - "Detroit ’67"
16.Roman Candle - "Eden Was a Garden"
17. The Damnwells - "Bastard of Midnight"
18. Avett Brothers - "I and Love and You"
19. Animal Collective - "My Girls"
20. Melody Gardot - "Who Will Comfort Me?"

Poem of the Month: Here's one I wrote for this month's poem-a-day challenge, and dedicated to every baseball fan whose team didn't have as good a season as the Phillies and Yankees.

Another Long Season

S. is a slacker, D. is a drag,
W. can’t hit his way out of a bag.
P. is a slowpoke, B. is a bum,
G.’s a good shortstop, but boy is he dumb.
C. is a closer who can’t save a game,
N. has been called every kind of bad name.
R. is a choker, H. a hot dog,
L.’s got less hustle than a hollowed-out log.
O.’s overpaid, V.’s over-the-hill,
U.’s been suspended for using some pill.
F. is a flake, M. plays for the money,
K. strikes out so much it's not even funny.
These guys haven’t given me much reason to cheer;
all I can say is: Just wait till next year!

The "Frillies" vs. The "Yankers"

2009-10-28T10:13:00.000-07:00

Yeah! Getting ready for the Phillies’ second consecutive World Series! I think the series versus the Yankees will be hard-fought and will go to at least six games, but I think the Phils will prevail. I’m still a bit ticked off about an article in that bastion of responsible journalism, the New York (Com)Post the other day. The headline read “The Frillies Are Coming” and featured a Photoshopped picture of Shane Victorino with a cheerleader’s skirt and legs. The piece of tripe that accompanied it proceeded to trash the team, its fans, and even the city. I won’t repeat all the nonsense that came out of the mouths and pens of the three alleged “writers” and the Yankee fans they quoted, but they even went as far as to say the Phils arrived in New York in true “second-class” style – by train. Now who travels from Philly to New York by plane anyway, unless they want to pay more and take longer to get there (or unless they have a private jet – like maybe A-Rod)? Anyway, I hope the Phillies take the series and make those Post morons eat their words – like a cheesesteak “with”.

Poetry: Another reminder that my group’s journal, Up and Under: The QND Review is now accepting submissions for poetry. Go to http://quickanddirtypoets.com/ for more details. You’ll also find links to two other journals that members of my group edit, Chantarelle’s Notebook and The Barefoot Muse.

I’m not doing a lot creatively these days other than an occasional so-so poem, but I am helping edit our journal and submitting to others. My new book Breathing Out has been slightly delayed but hopefully will be shipped out the end of October. Thanks for your patience to all of you who ordered copies in advance. If you didn’t get around to it and still would like a copy, check the publisher's website: http://www.finishinglinepress.com/.

Music: Besides enjoying the new album from The Swell Season (Glen Hansard and Marketa Inglova, the folks who brought you the indie film “Once” and its Oscar-winning song “Falling Slowly”) and turning my 13-year-old on to the joys of Bob Dylan, I’ve been thinking about lists again. I’ll have a best-albums-of-2009 list soon enough, but for now I’m thinking of the best of the decade, the 00’s if you will. I’m still tinkering with a list of 70-some candidates, but for now, here’s a list of my favorite 30 albums from the years 2000-2009:

1. The Crane Wife – The Decemberists
2. Illinois – Sufjan Stevens
3. Kill the Moonlight – Spoon
4. Twin Cinema – New Pornographers
5. SMiLE – Brian Wilson
6. We Were Born in a Flame – Sam Roberts
7. The Shepherd’s Dog – Iron & Wine
8. Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga – Spoon
9. Merriweather Post Pavilion – Animal Collective
10. Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! – Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
11. Asleep in the Back – Elbow
12. Stay Positive – The Hold Steady
13. Flock – Bell X1
14. A Rush of Blood to the Head – Coldplay
15. The Boxing Mirror – Alejandro Escovedo
16. Magic – Bruce Springsteen
17. Picaresque – The Decemberists
18.Gimme Fiction- Spoon
19. Fate – Dr. Dog
20. Okemah and the Melody of Riot – Son Volt
21. Sound of Silver – LCD Soundsystem
22. Viva la Vida – Coldplay
23. Electric Version – New Pornographers
24. The Rising – Bruce Springsteen
25. Boys and Girls in America – The Hold Steady
26. Boxer – The National
27. The Stage Names – Okkervil River
28. Separation Sunday – The Hold Steady
29. The Hazards of Love – The Decemberists
30. Come Away with Me – Norah Jones

Poem of the…Month:

I entered this limerick in a Halloween poetry contest – it didn’t win, but I thought it was fun in a slightly macabre way, so in the spirit of the season, here it is:

Nice Mask

“A Halloween full moon is neat,”
thought the werewolf, “I’ll go trick-or-treat!
They’ll think it’s a mask,
so they won’t even ask –
I’ll come home with a bag full of meat!”

Broken Knees, Phillies and Mosquito Trucks

2009-09-30T11:58:00.000-07:00

Things have been a bit busy around my house lately. We sent Son #3 off to graduate school in Washington earlier this month, and he seems to be doing well so far. Two weeks ago, though, Son #1 tripped and suffered a serious injury near his Brooklyn home – a fractured patella. He needed major surgery and ended up coming home with his mother, who spend several days with him up there. We provided nursing care while he recovered – on top of having a vertical line of staples in his kneecap and a clunky immobilizing leg brace, he suffered from nausea and a spinal headache for several days. He’s starting to adjust to his limitations, but it will be tough for him for a while. Among other things, he can’t return to his apartment, which has a long flight of steps and no elevator, and his job is a long commute from his home. My wife drove him to New York today to see his doctor and to try to teach his first class since the injury. We realized these past couple of weeks that you never stop being a parent, and never stop wanting to take care of your kids. I’m glad we could be there for him.

Poetry: Not writing a lot these days, but I’m anxiously awaiting the release of my new chapbook, Breathing Out. If you’re not already sick of hearing about it, and still want to get a copy, here’s the link to the publisher, Finishing Line Press. I did get confirmation that my poem “Trivia” was accepted for the next issue of US 1 Worksheets, and that I have been invited to submit work to a new online journal, the Fox Chase Review. I’m honored because submissions are by invitation only, and there are some pretty respectable poets from the area who have been published there. My merry band of bards, the Quick and Dirty Poets, had an invitational reading at the Mt. Holly Fall Arts Festival a couple of weeks ago - it was a swell time.
Speaking of local festivals, if you are in my area (Philly/South Jersey), check out the Collingswood Book Festival this Saturday, October 3rd.

I’m glad to hear that the Dodge Poetry Festival has been revived and will take place next year after all. I’m not crazy about the location (Newark) because it won’t have the idyllic feel that Waterloo Village did, but I’m happy that it will at least be held somewhere.

I registered for Peter Murphy’s Winter Getaway writer’s conference in Cape May next January. I attended this three-day affair a few years ago and had a great time. This one boasts two top-notch poets giving special workshops: Stephen Dunn and Mark Doty. Dunn has been there the last several years, but this is Doty’s first appearance at the conference. I just missed getting into his workshop (I’m high on the waiting list) so I will plan to take Stephen Dunn’s workshop instead. I know several people who have workshopped with him and they say he’s really good, so I’m looking forward to it.

Music: WXPN is starting their countdown of 885 “Desert Island Songs” – as I explained before, the premise is to pick 10 songs that you couldn’t do without if you were to be stranded on a desert island. The songs near the bottom of the list have been interesting and diverse, and generally really good, but I might make a list of songs that have been played that would make me want to swim for the mainland. “New York, New York” would be the first one on that list.

Baseball: Looks like my Phillies are on their way to their third consecutive division title, but not without making me bite my nails. Their once-comfortable lead over Atlanta has shrunken a bit due to their listless offense the last several games and Atlanta’s hot streak. As I write, though, their magic number is down to 1, so they could clinch as early as tonight. I’m not extremely confident they’ll get back to the World Series again this year, though, as there are a few question marks, the biggest one being the bullpen. Brad Lidge went from superhero to goat in one short year, and there really isn’t another consistent closer on the staff. We’ll see, but I’m afraid it may be another Dodgers-Yankees World Series. At least the network ratings folks would be happy.

Poem of the Post: Since I blog so sporadically, maybe I should stop calling this the "poem of the week" or "month", or "quarter" or whatever. It's the poem of this post, no matter how frequent or infrequent it is. This poem, a bit of nostalgia for now-departed summer, as well as an earlier, more innocent time, appears in the new issue of Edison Literary Review:

Mosquito Truck

In my neighborhood
with the exception of the ice cream man
no one attracted kids
like the mosquito truck guy.
He’d cruise down the streets
in that battered gray tanker
with “County Pest Control” stenciled
in no-nonsense black on the side.
Behind him a nozzle spewed a cloud of insecticide,
pluming and roiling like a sudden white fog.
And we were close behindon our red and blue Schwinns
plowing through this haze
pretending to be jet fighters
cutting the cumulus toward the stratosphere.

Who knows what we were inhaling
on those muggy summer evenings?
I’m sure DDT was in the mix.
But these were innocent times
before cancer was something everybody got,
before we wondered what was killing
all those fish and birds,
before we worried what our enemies
might put in our air,
or what we had done to it ourselves.
All that mattered to us at the time
was imagination, aspiration, purpose.
We would plunge oblivious
through those dangerous fumes,
pedaling willfully toward the unknown.

Bonus: a "999" Poem

2009-09-07T12:41:00.000-07:00

Here is a poem I wrote for a contest run by online poet friend Don "Kingfisher" Campbell. The premise is to write 9-line poem of nine words per line, on a subject that has something to do with the number 9. Here's his site: http://999poetry.
blogspot.com/

This concrete poem is in the form of a sudoku. I presume you could solve it with the numbers provided, if you were so inclined.

Click the image to enlarge it.

If you like it, go to the above link and leave a positive comment for the poem. Apparently these will help determine the winner of the contest. Thanks!

Mission Accomplished!

2009-09-06T16:58:00.000-07:00

I made it! I sold the 55 books required during the pre-sale period for a full printing from Finishing Line Press. I actually had 66 books sold for the period ending August 28, so that means I get a full first printing of 250 copies, plus 25 free copies for me to sell at readings, give away, or do whatever I want with them. I have to admit, it's a bit of a relief to have that pre-sale over with. Thanks to all of you out there who made this possible with your orders and your faith in me and my work. I got orders from family, co-workers, poet friends, online friends, and maybe even a stranger or two. Thanks also to Leah and Kevin Maines (the publisher-editors at Finishing Line Press); and to Anna Evans, BJ Ward and Therese Halscheid for writing wonderful blurbs for the book. If you are didn’t order yet but are still interested, the book is available at: http://www.finishinglinepress.com/NewReleasesandForthcomingTitles.htm

Music: I’ve been touting the website music club known as eMusic for some time now. It has been a great source for downloads of independent labels and hard-to-find albums. Recently I was a bit disappointed when they reduced the number of downloads per month with my membership, apparently to offset the increased price of bringing in some major labels like Columbia. But I must admit they have sweetened the pot with bonus downloads and such to keep me in the club. And I recently realized that Bob Dylan is one of the new artists they offer – virtually his whole catalog. So I snatched up about 50 favorite Dylan songs that I don’t already have on CD or elsewhere. That got me to thinking: what are the top Dylan albums I would recommend? Here they are, in order of preference:

1. Blonde on Blonde
2. Highway 61 Revisited
3. Bringing It All Back Home
4. Blood on the Tracks
5. The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan
6. John Wesley Harding
7. Another Side of Bob Dylan
8. The Times They Are A-changin’
9. Desire
10. Time Out of Mind
11. Oh Mercy
12. Modern Times

The other find on eMusic was one of my favorite “New Age” artists, George Winston. His “Seasons” box set (which includes his albums Winter into Spring, Summer, and Autumn) is available on eMusic for 12 download credits – that’s for 33 tracks – quite a bargain.

Poem of the Fortnight: I had fun with Robert Brewer’s Poetic Asides blog weekly prompt this week, so I thought I’d share it here. The prompt was to write a poem about something mislabeled. My subject was a little bit of a stretch for the topic, that’s okay. The title is the word for misheard or misinterpreted lyrics in a song – it originates from an old English folk song that contains the line, “and laid him on the green”, which has been misinterpreted as “and Lady Mondegreen”.

Mondegreens

We do not pledge allegiance
to the republic for “Richard Stans”.

“Gladly the Cross I’d Bear” is not a hymn
about a cross-eyed bear named Gladly,
and “Silent Night” is not about “round John Virgin.”

Creedence Clearwater Revival
did not sing about a “bathroom on the right”,
and Jimi Hendrix did not want to “kiss this guy”.

And as for the Beatles’ “Michelle”,
they’re singing in French, not about
a “Sunday monkey” who won’t play a piano song.

So get it right, people!
Now if you don’t mind,
I’ll listen to my favorite classical pieces,

like Mozart’s “I’m Inclined to Knock Music”,
or the "Cannon" by Paco Bell.

Flooding, Desert Islands, Tomatoes and the Hard Sell

2009-08-24T18:35:00.000-07:00

It was good to spend a few days with my sister, down from Maine. We don't get together much these days due to the geographical thing, but she came down to visit us, and her son, and some old school chums. She'd be the first to tell you, though, that her trip here (and to Ohio to see her daughter) was full of mishaps, the last and probably biggest being the flooding of her car. She was visiting in Glassboro Saturday night ater a huge rainstorm, turned onto a side street into a large puddle which turned out to be more like a small lake. The water came up to her headlights and rushed into her floorboards, and she could actually feel the car floating. Fortunately she was able to drive through it, and though the car stalled out temporarily, it seems okay now. Damp, but okay. It should be good for the trip back to Maine tomorow.

Poetry: It's me again, the broken record! One last reminder that pre-sales period for my new poetry chapbook, Breathing Out, ends this Friday the 28th! If you like my poetry and would like to have a handsome collection of it, plus help me meet my publication goal, please go to: http://www.finishinglinepress.com/NewReleasesandForthcomingTitles.htm

Music: Once again WXPN is having their annual top 885 list and asking listeners to compile a top ten list based on this premise: If you could take only ten songs with you to a desert island, which ten would they be? This is the list I compiled and submitted at the XPN Fest after about an hour's cogitation in the hot sun. I went somewhat eclectic with this, figuring if I were to be stuck with ten songs for God-knows-how-long, they'd better be fairly diverse.

10. Gaudete - Steeleye Span: representing the folk genre, this gorgeous a capella piece is indicative of a great band's harmonies - it's also made just about every Christmas mix tape/CD I've ever compiled, so it can serve double duty as a seasonal number. It was a toss-up, though, between this and Fairport Convention's "Matty Groves".

9. 1952 Vincent Black Lightning - Richard Thompson: Maybe a bit too obvious, but I have never grown tired of this one, the best acoustic song ever done by one of my favorite all-time artists. (His best electric song? "Shoot Out the Lights".)

8. Kashmir - Led Zeppelin: Big and bombastic, heavy with Eastern modality, this song still gives me goose bumps whenever I crank it up.

7. My Girl - Temptations: One of the smoothest, most romantic songs ever recorded, period.

6. I Heard it Through the Grapevine - Marvin Gaye: Not sure why I included two Motown songs (maybe it was the sun), but this is just one of the most perfect pop songs ever.

5. Sshh/Peaceful - Miles Davis: My all-time favorite jazz artist, with his best lineup ever, doing one of the prettiest numbers of the genre. (I had it picked before I even saw Mezz's list - honest!)

4. (Stuck Inside of Mobile with the) Memphis Blues Again - Bob Dylan: I had to include something by the greatest pop singer-songwriter ever, didn't I? It was a toss-up between this one and "Desolation Row".

3. The Four Seasons: Winter - Antonio Vivaldi: Any good recording of this will do - I love baroque, and this is one of my favorite works - also, like #10 above, it can do double duty as a seasonal piece (I'll need something on that desert island to remind me of snow and winter!)

2. I Am the Walrus - The Beatles: Can't go anywhere without my Fabs, and this is still my all-time favorite song of theirs - psychedelic, goofy, obtuse, overproduced, and just friggin' wonderful.

1. 9th Symphony: 4th Movement, "Ode to Joy" - Ludwig von Beethoven: I'd prefer to take the whole symphony, but if limited to one movement, this is the one - glorious, inspiring, just one of the most incredible pieces ever written. Again, any good version will do, but I'm still partial to the version from the 1960's with Ormandy and The Philadelphia Orchestra. (Honorable mention: Handel's "Hallelujah Chorus")

Just missing the cut:
Brandenburg Concerto #2 - J.S. Bach
The Boxer - Simon and Garfunkel
Baba O'Riley - The Who
My Favorite Things - John Coltrane
Sister Jack - Spoon
Here I Dreamt I Was an Architect - The Decemberists
Use It - The New P*rnographers
Shine On You Crazy Diamond - Pink Floyd
The Great Curve - Talking Heads
Music for 18 Musicians - Steve Reich

Poem of the Week (more or less):

It's been ten years this summer since I started writing poetry again after a long, long hiatus. This is one of the first ones I wrote that summer, and it appeared in a journal called Maelstrom in 2001:

Foreboding

Three plump tomatoes,

products of my late summer garden,

sit on the kitchen cutting board

in a triangular array,

each a bit smaller than the other

but every one just as red,

awaiting their fate.

Today, they are almost decorative;

tomorrow, they’ll be someone’s salad,

split open by serrated knives,

sliced, cubed, even crushed,

their thin seeds and juices

staining the wood.

They look so peaceful now, so red

in the terrible white kitchen.

Buy My Book! Buy My Book!

2009-08-13T12:28:00.000-07:00

Those of you who are fans of the short-lived animated series "The Critic" will get the joke. For those who don't, "The Critic" was about a movie critic named Jay Sherman, voiced by Jon Lovitz, and brought to you by the same folks who produced “The Simpsons”. It was a wonderfully funny send-up of the movie, TV and entertainment business in general, and chock full of movie spoof scenes. One episode was a spoof of the Stephen King-based film “Misery”, with Jay held captive by a deranged fan. In the fan's apartment was a life-sized promotional animated cut-out Jay holding a copy of his latest book, waving its arms and shouting, “Buy my BOOK! Buy my BOOK!” That’s what I feel like doing, yet I don’t want to get that obnoxious about it. It’s just that the arrangement I have with Finishing Line Press makes it necessary to push it hard during the pre-sale period. I’m getting worried because as of this writing, I have only sold 18 copies so far, and I need to sell 37 more by August 28, or I won’t get a first printing (250 copies including 25 free to me). So this is my final appeal: Buy my BOOK! To those of you who have already: thanks so much, and please be patient till it finally is released in mid-October. Those of you whom I see in person, I will be glad to autograph it if you wish. To the rest of you: I know you have the best intentions, but don’t procrastinate – please order it today! Go to http://www.finishinglinepress.com/, click the tab for new and forthcoming releases, and scroll down alphabetically to my name and my book. Thank you for your time and attention. Sincerely yours, Bruce.

Rehearsals for Retirement?

2009-08-07T22:08:00.000-07:00

Well, blog, I’m trying to turn over a new leaf and post more often, even at the risk of becoming inane and boring. Well, more inane and boring, anyway. The summer has been a pretty good one so far. This week my wife and I are “childless”- our youngest is off to Boy Scout camp again and our second-youngest, who has been back home for the summer, is off on a cross-country road trip. So the missus and I planned a two-night getaway at a B&B in Lancaster County, PA. Unfortunately, the owner called us the night before and told us he had air-conditioning problems, so we decided to cancel our plans and spend our three days off at home. It was wonderful, kind of a “rehearsal for retirement” – doing things at an unhurried pace, going out to dinner, sleeping in, puttering around, shopping, even setting up a new bed for ourselves (wink, wink). I could get used to this. No bingo or bus trips yet, though.

Good news in poetry: My poem, “Old Man at Bedtime”, has been nominated for a Best of the Net Award by the online journal Thick with Conviction. It’s one of two poems I’ve written about my late father-in-law, and both have earned me some accolades. I think he’s smiling down on me.

Baseball: How ‘bout them Phillies? Seven games ahead in first place, last time I checked. Let’s hope they can keep the lead and make the playoffs again – and dare I say it – even the World Series, for the second year in a row. (Pardon my skepticism, but as a long-time Phillies fan I’m old enough to remember their colossal collapse of 1964.) Their hitting – especially Rollins – is picking up again after a bit of a slump, and they have a surplus of good starting pitchers all of a sudden. Getting Cliff Lee was a major coup, and that kid Happ is looking like a Rookie of the Year candidate – what a gem he pitched the other night! GM Amaro even suggested they may go to a six-man rotation. It’s a pleasant dilemma when you have to decide whether to keep Jamie Moyer or Pedro Martinez in the rotation. The only weak link is the bullpen – Brad Lidge this year seems like a shadow of his former self.

Music: I just realized that I never posted anything about the XPoNential Music Festival, the annual event I attended about two weeks ago at Wiggins Park in Camden. It’s a 3-day affair, but I went on Saturday (all by myself, it turns out). A bit hot, but a fine day for music. Steve Wynn and Pete Yorn rocked, local bands East Hundred and Illinois were excellent, John Gorka was great as always, The Bacon Brothers were surprisingly good, Yeasayer (see below) were a revelation, local gal Sharon Little was sexy and bluesy, They Might Be Giants were quirky and fun as expected, and The Hold Steady were awesome and rockin’ as expected, till rain shortened their set.

I just downloaded two albums that I’m enjoying:

1. Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix by Phoenix – This French band is upbeat, breezy and poppy with a splash of electronica, and the album kicks off with two of the best songs of the year, “Lisztomania” and “1901”. It’s already making a bunch of best-of-the-year lists, and will probably make mine as well.

2. All Hour Cymbals by Yeasayer – I saw these guys at the XPoNential Music Festival this year, and they were impressive, with an eclectic, progressive mix of rock and world music styles, and tight harmonies. This is their debut album from last year, and it too got a lot of favorable reviews. The music is almost impossible to describe, so all I can say is give it a listen.

Poem of the Week: Here’s a summer poem with a slightly erotic edge that appeared previously in Thick with Conviction:

Sultry

On the weekend, you were a steady rain.

Yesterday, when you were mostly cloudy,

it was hard to read your sky.

But today you’re bright sunshine and warm

with a light southerly breeze

and a high in the upper 80’s.

Everything blooms around you

and fragrances follow your path.

I want to meet you on the veranda

as lemonade glasses sweat the afternoon.

Let’s generate a strong Bermuda high.

Tonight, let’s make a little thunder in the bedroom,

and glisten afterward, twisted in dampened sheets.

It’s not your heat, baby,

it’s your humidity.

Readings and Holy Tango II

2009-07-30T11:20:00.000-07:00

It’s been an active summer poetry-wise for me. Not only am I beating the drum for my new chapbook (and in case you’ve forgotten, it’s called Breathing Out and is available from Finishing Line Press), but I’ve already done three readings in the past month or so, which for me is pretty busy. “Real life” keeps me from getting out to read more often, which would be weekly if I had a chance. As I mentioned before, my poem “Record Store” was published in the new issue of Philadelphia Poets, and I attended both of the book launch parties. The South Philly reading was great, but the one at Robin’s Bookstore in Center City last night was even better. Despite a stormy evening, there was a very good turnout. I was one of a baker’s dozen of featured poets reading, so I only got to read three of my poems, but they got a big, enthusiastic response, and hopefully I sold a couple of books as well. It was an excellent evening of poetry all around. Kudos to editor Rosemary Cappello for putting together both events, and for an awesome journal.
I also read with Kendall Bell for the Burlington County Poets on the 23rd, and that went very well too. Thanks to Sheila McDonald, Adele Bourne and the rest of the BC Poets for inviting us.

Music: Just got the new albums by Moby (Wait for Me) and Son Volt (American Central Dust). Moby’s album is better than anything he’s done since his 1999 classic, Play. Musically it’s not as varied or adventurous, but the man still knows how to write some gorgeous, cinematic themes. Son Volt’s last effort, The Search, was a bit disappointing after their terrific 2006 release Okemah and the Melody of Riot, but this new one is a solid effort, if a bit mellower than the last two albums.

Poem of the Week: It feels good to say that again. Here is another offering inspired by Francis Heaney’s very funny collection, Holy Tango of Literature. Again, the premise is to take a famous poet’s name and anagram it into a word or phrase that can be a title, then write a poem with that title in the style of that poet. So here’s a poet that everyone knows well:

Dress Us
by Dr. Seuss

“We’re going next week to the Burbletown Ball,”
Said Louie and Zooie McGrundle-O’Grall.
“We need something fancy to catch all their eyes,
So do you have something that’s nice in our size?”
“Oh sure,” said the salesman, a Mr. Galoot,
“Here’s something for you sir, a wonderful suit!
It’s made from the finest Bodinka-cat hide,
with purplish stripes and green lining inside.”
“But the Bodinka-cat’s such a cute little varmint,”
said Louie, “I never would put on this garment.”
“Okay,” said Galoot, “Here’s something for madam,
a red gown spun by the silkworms of Zhaddam.”
“But the silkworms,” said Zooey, “work all day and night,
without any lunch break – I’ve heard of their plight!”
“All right!” huffed Galoot, “I don’t mean to pester,
But look at this rack – it’s all polyester!”
“Oh no, that’s from oil,” Louie said with disgust,
“Non-renewable resource – we must save it – we must!”
“I can’t help you,” Galoot sneered. “You’re both on a mission,
“So now please excuse me – I work on commission!”
So Mr. and Mrs. McGrundle-O’Grall
Finally went to the Burbletown Ball.
They never did really intend be rude,
But they shocked everyone when they came in the nude!

Holy Tango of Literature

2009-07-24T11:10:00.000-07:00

I had to share this. The other day I was listening to an audiobook of an American humor collection called Mirth of a Nation, which contained a piece by Francis Heaney consisting of several very funny poetry parodies. Mr. Heaney’s premise is to take the name of a famous poet, anagram his or her name into a word or group of words that could be the title of a poem, then write a poem on that subject in the style of that poet, perhaps parodying one of their more famous poems. Thus, Emily Dickinson becomes “Skinny Domicile”, and T.S. Eliot becomes “Toilets”: “Let us go, then, to the john…” He has collected these poems, and also some short plays by playwrights such as Harold Pinter (“Horrid Planet”), in a book entitled Holy Tango of Literature. (“Holy Tango” is an anagram of “anthology”.) You can find examples from his book here: http://www.yarnivore.com/francis/Holy_Tango.htm

I’ve been intrigued by anagrams in poetry lately, having read Paul Pereira’s collection What’s Written on the Body, which contains a section of poems with anagrams. Those inspired me to write a recent poem entitled “Journal Evening (Loving Near June)”. Mr. Heaney now has inspired me to try my hand at “poet anagram” piece. I selected a favorite poet, Robert Hayden, and my favorite poem of his, “Those Winter Sundays”, as the subject of my parody, even though I parodied this same poem just a few months ago. It turns out Mr. Hayden’s name produces one of the most perfect poet anagrams I’ve seen so far:

The Errand Boy
by Robert Hayden

Sundays too the grocery boy came early
in his supermarket clothes, dressed for the cold,
then with cracked hands that ached
from bagging at checkout #4, made
my cupboards full. No one ever thanked him.

I’d wake and hear his knocking, yelling,
“Mr. Hayden, are ya home?” he’d call –
and slowly I would rise and dress,
fearing the grocery bill for my house,

Speaking indifferently to him,
who had driven through the cold
and scuffed up his shoes as well.
What did I know, what did I know,
about how much I should tip him?

Here's another one - it's not a parody of any particular Billy Collins poem, just his style, which, by the way, I admire greatly. I did lift the apple image from one of his poems, though:

Bly’s Ill, Colin
by Billy Collins

It’s not exactly the kind of anagram I would want.
After all, Robert Hayden got “The Errand Boy”,
and T.S. Eliot got “Toilets”. But my name anagrams
into a minimal rearrangement of letters,
barely disguising the source. It must be all those L’s,
a plethora of alliteration that reduces its flexibility,
though it keeps the tongue busy. Well, it will have to do.
I could write something about my friend Robert Bly
and give him some rare disease, like yaws or pellagra,
or maybe Creutzfeldt-Jakob Syndrome.
I could have famous visitors pay their respects,
and I would be the doorman, running interference:
“Yes, Anjelica, I think he’d like to see you now.”
“Sorry, Colin – I mean General Powell – he’s sleeping.”
But that would be silly. Instead, I should just scrap
the title and the whole concept, and write about the apple
which has been on my bedroom floor for three days,
one lone bite in its side, spinning with the rest of my world
around a fat, indolent sun.

Upcoming Readings

2009-07-17T04:27:00.000-07:00

I know I've been criminally underusing this blog, but I can't believe I missed the opportunity to promote two upcoming readings:

Thursday July 23 - reading with Kendall Bell (my Quick and Dirty colleague, also the co-editor of Chantarelle's Notebook and publisher of Maverick Duck Press) for the Burlington County Poets, at Burlington County Library, 5 Pioneer Blvd., Westampton NJ, 7-9 p.m.

Wednesday, July 29- reading (with several other poets) at the Philadelphia Poets Vol. 15 Book Launch, 7:00 p.m., Robin’s Books and Moonstone Art Center, 110A S. 13th Street, Philadelphia.

Extra: The Book is Out!

2009-07-14T20:56:00.000-07:00

Just got word that my chapbook, "Breathing Out" is now on the Finishing Line Press website. If you're interested, now is the time to order a copy, as advance sales help me to get to a full first printing. Click the link above, then click the "New and Forthcoming Titles" button and scroll down to my name. You can pay by check or credit card. Thanks for your support!

Summertime, Summertime, Sum-sum-summertime...

2009-07-12T20:06:00.000-07:00

Anyone remember that old song? It's been an amazingly temperate, and until recently, wet summer so far, and our highlight to this point has been our trip to the Myrtle Beach area - our first visit. We actually stayed in Surfside Beach, just to the south and not quite as congested, though still quite busy. Our timeshare resort was set back in a wooded area, though, and was very nice with lots of amenities including a pool with a "lazy river". We only actually spent one day on the beach (the ocean was delightfully warm), but we found more than enough to do elsewhere, like amusement and water parks, mini-golf, seafood buffet, and activities onsite at the resort. The best place, though, was Brookgreen Gardens, about 1/2 hour south of MB. It's a huge 9000-acre estate which contains beautiful gardens and a wide array of sculptures, mostly in a neo-classic style, all over the grounds. Anna Huntington, who was a sculptor of some renown herself, owned the estate with husband Archer. There is also a zoo with domesticated and wild animals, including foxes, alligators, otters, eagles and others. The weather was near-perfect that week - hot but dry, and no rain in our area the whole time. We'll be back again.
Road trip tip: We discovered the joys of audiobooks on this trip, which is 10 to 11 hours each way by car. We popped them into our CD player and they really helped pass the time. We listened to Marley and Me on the way down, and Bill Bryson's memoir, The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid, on the way back.

The other highlight of the trip, especially for our youngest son, was reuniting with his half-brothers whom he hadn't seen for about eight years. They both live in South Carolina, and we had a very nice evening with them over dinner in Georgetown.

Poetry: I finally got word from Finishing Line Press that advance sales of my chapbook, Breathing Out, will begin on their website on July 17, through August 28. If you are interested in buying my book, the best thing for me would be to pre-order it online, as these sales will determine whether it goes to a full first printing. Click here for more information.

I've been rather frustrated because I have missed two of the three summer readings hosted by my group, The Quick and Dirty Poets, the last one on July 10th featuring our friend and former member Rachel Bunting. She did make a surprise visit to our group meeting the night before, though, so it was good to see her again. Our next reading features poet Lynn Levin on August 9. Click the link to the right for more information.

Still not producing as much new poetry as I would like, though I'm still doing the weekly Poetic Asides prompts. One of my recent ones was featured a few days later as Pathetic.org's "Poem of the Day". I will include it below.

I've been enjoying Paul Pereira's poetry colleection What's Written on the Body, which includes a section called "Anagrammer", a series of very clever poems that contain a number of anagrams and other wordplay. They inspired me to try one out myself, and I was rather pleased with the results.

Music: Well, the year is half over, and here are my ten favorite albums of 2009 as of today (in alphabetical order:

Animal Colective - Merriweather Post Pavilion
Bell X1 - Blue Lights on the Runway
Death Cab for Cutie - The Open Door EP
Decemberists - Hazards of Love
Iron and Wine - Around the Well
Black Joe Lewis the Honeybears - Tell 'em What Your Name Is!
Melody Gardot - My One and Only Thrill
Neko Case - Middle Cyclone
Various Artists - Dark Was the Night
White Rabbits - It's Frightening

I haven't heard the new albums by Moby and Son Volt in their entirety yet, but when I do, I suspect they could crack my top 10.

Poem of the Month: Someday I'll get back to a poem a week, but for now this will do. This is the poem I wrote in response to the prompt, "Write a poem with a title that begins, 'Nobody's Worth...'".

Nobody’s Worth More than $4.50

It’s that exercise they do every so often,
where they break the human body down
to its composite elements and figure out
how much they’re worth in today’s market.

So nobody is literally worth their weight in gold.
And certainly nobody’s worth ten million a year
no matter what team they play on,
no matter what corporation they head.

And I’m sorry, but nobody is really worth billions,
not a sultan or a founder of some electronics empire.
It’s just stuff, and they’re still just
pathetic bags of chemicals.

To some, life is cheap, and nobody is worth anything.
This is where suffering comes in.
But I say all that’s irrelevant. We are priceless,
no matter which way you take us apart.

Shame, Shame...

2009-06-17T20:45:00.000-07:00

...on me for not keeping up this blog. My son, who is becoming an estimable poet in his own right and has his own poetry blog, has shamed me into writing tonight. I have no right to whine about lack of readership if I'm not posting more than once a month at most. So I plan to try to put something up at least weekly from now on. I'll try to keep it from getting too inane.

I did in fact finish the Poem-a-Day Challenge run by Robert Brewer on the Poetic Asides blog, which was a huge success with over 25,000 poems entered over the 30 days. The judges will select the 50 best for an e-book publication in July. I even volunteered to help out by reviewing one day's worth of poems (about 800!) and selecting what I thought were the the 50 best for that day, then I sent them off to Robert and Tammy Brewer to cut the list down to five. Those five then go to a "celebrity" judge (one for each day) who selects the best one for that day. Robert and Tammy then select 20 more of their favorites, rounding out the 50 winners.

It's looking like a busy summer poetically for me. Monday night I was featured reader at Barnes and Noble in Marlton, NJ, sponsored by the poetry group there of which I am a long-time member. Next week I am one of the readers for the journal launch of the new issue of Philadelphia Poets (who are publishing my poem, "Record Store"), and in July my friend Kendall Bell and I are featured readers for the Burlington County Poets. Our own group, Quick and Dirty Poets, has our summer series already set with readings in June, July and August. My next-door neighbor has asked me to give a talk on poetry and publication with her writing group soon, and I hope by the end of the summer I will hear something on my chapbook from Finishing Line Press. I've also sent some formal poetry out to a print journal, The Lyric.

I feel badly that I haven't enrolled in any workshops or conferences this year. The Princeton Festival was great, but it didn't offer opportunities for workshop and critique. I skipped the Philadelphia Writers Conference, who have been so good to me these last few years, and I again missed out on the West Chester Poetry Conference, which my friend Anna has attended and raves about. There's also the Rutgers Summer Writing Conference, which a week of commitment (and time off work) and not something I wasn't quite ready for yet. Oh well, there's always next year.

Music: I really like the new album by White Rabbits, It's Frightening. They sound a bit like Spoon, so it's not just coincidence that Britt Daniel of Spoon produced it. Two drummers and a piano up front make it as very percussive and catchy band. Their leadoff track, "Percussion Gun", is one of the most addictive songs of the year - I can't get it out of my brain!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTnZOXs3gOo

I still can't figure how to attach a video directly to the blog. Can someone offer a little tech advice?

Poem of the Month:

National Record Store Day was in April - its purpose is to convince folks to patronize their friendly neighborhood independent record store, a dying breed. Here's a poem I wrote right around the last Record Store celebration in April 2008. This is the poem that will be featured in the new issue of Philadelphia Poets:

Record Store

Brick-and-mortar dinosaur,

endangered species, whose habitat

is encroached by mp3’s,

mail-order websites and big-box

superstores – why am I still drawn

to you, why do I still walk right into

your welcoming mouth? It must be

your organized jumble, alphabetic chaos

of racks and racks of cases and sleeves,

CD’s and vinyl LP’s lined up

like thousands of ribs. What is it

about the air inside you that renders me

amnesiac, forgetting everything else

to do in the world, as I flip methodically

through the rows, searching for treasure?

I could hunt for hours, the stack

of booty growing in my hands –

a used Miles Davis CD, a cut-out

copy of Bach cantatas, a mint-condition

vinyl of Dark Side of the Moon.

If the guy at the register plays

something I like, I could languish

all afternoon.. There’s something

real here, the slightly musty smell

of old records, the rainbow sheen of

the CD surface I inspect for scratches,

the lost art of the gatefold sleeve,

even just the heft of my catch,

that one can never get from watching

the crawling bar on a monitor

and the message, “Download Complete”.

NaPoMo Update/Poetry in Princeton

2009-04-30T13:40:00.000-07:00

Another National Poetry Month has come to a close, and it’s been a pretty good one for me. As of this writing I’ve turned out over 30 poems in 29 days, and expect to complete one today for the last day of the poem-a-day challenge. Once again, thanks to Robert Brewer and his Poetic Asides blog for keeping the inspiration going with his daily prompts. He and his wife have a daunting task of wading through over 15,000 entries for the month, and winnowing them down to 5 for each day to send to their celebrity judges. The best 50 poems, in the opinions of the judges and the Brewers, will be published in an e-book. I hope that one of mine makes it.

On April 27th and 28th I attended the Princeton Poetry Festival, and it was everything I’d hoped and more. It went from 2pm to after 9pm both days – the afternoons offered readings by the invited poets and symposia on the subjects of “The Audience of the Future” and the process of poetry translation. The evenings were readings and conversation by John Ashbery and Seamus Heaney. I got to hang out with my friends John and Adele Bourne and Sheila McDonald, and Pat Hardigree joined us on the second day. I still lament the demise of the Dodge Festival, but this one, on a somewhat smaller scope, was in a way even more satisfying because it offered a more “intimate” venue – a hall that seats maybe 900 people. We spent much of the festival in the first or second row, so we got an up-front-and personal view of everyone. And there were many opportunities to casually meet the poets. I shook hands with Ashbery and got his autograph, as well as one from Michael Hofmann, an excellent German-British poet who was my “discovery” of the festival. I even accidentally upset Naomi Shihab Nye’s tote bag, for which I apologized profusely before I knew who she was. Sheila sat right next to her and I was next to Sheila. The poets were splendid, especially the venerable, legendary ones. Seamus Heaney – well, I love him more than ever, especially when he read some of my favorites, like “Mid-Term Break” and “A Sofa in the Forties”. John Ashbery has been a revelation to me too – I’m appreciating his work much more now than when I first encountered it. And Galway Kinnell read a poem still in progress. Gerald Stern read a moving poem about a friend’s pet deer that was struck and killed by a car. Lucille Clifton was great as always. The symposia and conversations were fascinating. Kudos to Paul Muldoon (an estimable poet in his own right) and everyone at the Lewis Center for putting together a very enjoyable two days of poetry.

No new publication news, other than that I've sent all my materials off to Finishing Line Press for the chapbook they'll be publishing this fall. My son designed another cool cover for me - can't wait till it's out.

Music: Not a whole lot of news here either - lately I'm listening to Juana Molina, Animal Collective, Great Lake Swimmers, and Arvo Part - an eclectic mix. I did celebrate National Record Store Day (April 18) by patronizing my favorite indpendent record boutique, Tunes in Marlton NJ. (Record stores are an endangered species and need our support!) I bought Iron & Wine Live at Norfolk, a 2005 performance that was one of the exclusive Record Store Day releases, plus a couple of used CD's from Ra Ra Riot (excellent "chamber rock") and What Made Milwaukee Famous (also pretty good). Got lots of freebies there for the occasion, like CD samplers, a vinyl LP sampler, and a nice color Beatles poster that I gave to my youngest son, who's almost as big a Beatles fan as I am.

Poem of the Month: I guess I'll share one of the poems I've written for the Poem-a-day Challenge. This was written in response to the prompt to use the title of a famous poem, change it slightly, and then either riff off the title in your own direction, or do a "takeoff" on the original poem. I tried it both ways, but this is the one that's a parody of the famous William Carlos Williams poem that was supposedly a note to his wife about the plums he ate from the fridge ("icebox"):

This Is Just to Say (Memo from a CEO)

I have taken
the bailout money
that came from your
tax dollars

for which you worked
so hard to pay
and gave myself
a bonus

Forgive me
it was wonderful
so sweet
and so green

National Poetry Month! Baseball! Woohoo!

2009-04-08T14:20:00.000-07:00

All right, time to stop making excuses: this blog is long overdue. And now that it’s National Poetry Month and the beginning of the baseball season, I have not excuse.
Yup, I’m doing the Poem-a-day Challenge again, and once again following Robert Brewer’s blog on the Writer’s Digest site. This month is kind of exciting, because he has corralled a bunch of judges to pick daily winners, whose poems will eventually end up in an e-book he’ll produce with the 50 best submitted poems of the month. Competition may be keen, however, because he’s had an unprecedented response on his comments board, with over 700-800 entries a day (over 1000 on the first day alone). I don’t envy his task, with his poet wife’s help, of slogging through hundreds of submissions a day, although a fair number of them, frankly, will be easy to weed out. The judges for the final cut, by the way, include such familiar names (at least to us poets) as Mark Doty, Dorianne Laux, and Marilyn Nelson.

I’m also mailing off my pre-publication package to Finishing Line Press for my chapbook, Breathing Out. Got my cover art and photos (courtesy of my son) as well as three very nice “blurbs” from my poet friends Anna Evans, Therese Halscheid, and BJ Ward. Watch this blog in a few months for more details of the pending publication!

The other thing I’m doing for Poetry Month is attending the Princeton Poetry Festival on April 27th and 28th. Unfortunately, the Dodge Foundation decided not to hold the biannual Dodge Poetry Festival next year, but thank goodness for other organizations that will be trying to fill that huge cultural hole. This one will feature two poetry legends, John Ashberry and Seamus Heaney, and a number of other excellent poets in readings and seminars. And best of all, it’s FREE – but you need to order tickets. If you're interested, click here.

Finally in poetry news, our group, Quick and Dirty Poets, has released our 4th annual issue of our journal, Up and Under: the QND Review, which should be available soon, if not now, on our website (see link on right). Not that I’m biased or anything, but I think it’s our best issue yet, and our launch party last month was a big success.

Baseball: Opening week! Can the Phillies repeat? I think they certainly have the potential – they have virtually the same starting lineup and pitching staff that made them so successful last year. Pat Burrell is gone, but he’ll be happier as a DH in the AL, I think, and Ibanez will hopefully fill that gap well. They won it all last year despite some offensive slumps from their key players, so if everyone gets in a groove this year, they’ll be hard to beat. The pitching staff needs to be consistent and healthy, of course, and we need JC Romero back (he got a raw deal with that banned substance penalty – way too stiff a punishment, IMHO). I predict they’ll at least make the playoffs again this year, if everyone stays healthy.

Music: Nothing yet this year has set my world on fire, though I do like the new releases from Neko Case, M. Ward, The Decemberists, Animal Collective, Andrew Bird, A.C. Newman, Beirut, and Bell X1. That’s like, not love. One of my favorites CD’s so far this year is actually a compilation from the folks that have brought us the “Red Hot…” series which benefits AIDS charities. It’s called Dark Was the Night, a 2-CD collection of some of the best indie-rock and indie–folk artists performing these days: Feist, Bon Iver, The National, Sufjan Stevens, Yo La Tengo, Spoon, Arcade Fire, Iron & Wine, and a bunch of other favorites. It’s well worth a listen.

Poem of the Month: This one appears in the new issue of Up and Under:

Where Are They Now?

I hadn’t heard anything from the Muses
for so long, so I went online
to track them down. It seems they’ve all gone
undercover, acquired new identities:

Terpsichore’s on Dancing with the Stars
(still hot, too – love that skimpy outfit).

Erato’s become a porn queen – that’s some boob job!

Euterpe’s a producer for some indie label in Japan.

Urania runs the planetarium at a science museum
in Phoenix. Most nights she just stares into the night sky,
making up new constellations.

Thalia’s doing standup at some cheesy comedy club
in Baltimore. Weeknights, she waitresses at the same club.

Clio teaches history at a high school in Philly.
Her lesbian lover’s a performance artist.

Polyhymnia has joined a religious cult in Montana,
and spends her days in a long skirt, on a hard bench,
chanting.

Melpomene – well, she’s a sad story, in the hospital
for the fifth time after as many suicide attempts.
But she’s published three books of poetry.

Calliope is a stay-at-home Mom of three in Michigan.
Weekdays she gives piano lessons.

No wonder I can’t get inspired.

Where Have I Been? Ireland!

2009-02-25T14:23:00.000-08:00

Hello, blog! Long time no see! I guess I’ve been away for so long because there seemed to be so little to talk about. But we just got back from a week in Ireland – our second visit there. We stayed in western Ireland (Killarney area) in 2007, but this year we went to the Dublin area. It was great, though generally a different experience – bucolic versus urban. Dublin is a bustling city, all right, but a fascinating one. We actually stayed at a timeshare resort about ½ hour south of Dublin proper, Fitzpatrick Castle Holiday Homes – very nice. It’s between the bayside towns of Dalkey and Killiney, an area that boasts a number of celebrity residents like Bono and The Edge of U2, author Maeve Binchy, and the late playwright Hugh Leonard. We also located musician Enya’s castle. We didn’t rent a car, so we relied on public transit and foot power the whole week (lots of walking involved), and it was uphill all the way from the village of Dalkey up to our resort (about a kilometer or so). We got a sample Of Irish hospitality early on the first day when we arrived in Dalkey by bus and tried to figure out how to get a cab to take us up the hill. An older gent named Sean, who was seeing off his adult daughter at the bus stop, offered to drive us up to the resort. So three of us plus luggage piled into his subcompact car and got a ride. What a nice fellow. (I said “the three of us”, but one of our other sons, who came on another flight, joined us later that day.)

I won’t give you the whole itinerary, but I will give you the top 5 highlights, at least in my opinion (and not necessarily in order):

1. The Irish History Walking Tour, which we took on our first full day (Sunday). It started at Trinity College and wound around to different historic buildings like Dublin Castle and Christchurch Cathedral. All the while our guide, an editor for Irish History magazine, gave us a crash course in Irish history. Fascinating, and a good orientation to the historic parts of the city.
2. The Chester Beatty Library. Beatty was an American-born millionaire and philanthropist who acquired an awesome collection of books and other sacred and secular artifacts. We saw illuminated manuscripts from the Middle Ages, some very old editions of the Bible and Koran, and even a fragment of one of the Gospels from the 3rd century.
3. Newgrange: an ancient burial mound in the countryside that dates from 3200 B.C., 500 years before the Pyramids of Giza. Visitors are allowed inside the inner chamber, which is one of the oldest man-made structures still standing. The Neolithic people who built it constructed a vaulted ceiling from heavy stones, and without any kind of mortar or such. They also aligned the entrance and a “window” over it such that, on the Winter Solstice every year, the rising sun illuminates the entire inner chamber for just a few minutes. People from all over the world are eager to experience this phenomenon, so a lottery is held each year to determine which 50 people can come to see it.
4. The National Museum: The archeology museum was fascinating, and contained gold jewelry made by the Irish natives as far back as 3000 B.C., as well as artifacts of the Viking occupation. But the coolest thing was being able to see the “bog men” - three of these well-preserved bodies on display there.
5. The “Irish House Party” – on our last night in Ireland, we went to The Lansdowne Hotel in Dublin, where they seat about 30 people for a four-course meal, followed by a show with traditional Irish musicians. There was a vocalist/guitarist, accordion player, flute and whistle player, and a young woman who alternated between playing the fiddle and step-dancing (she used to be in “Riverdance”). We did sing-alongs, and some of us learned some basic Irish dance steps. The host invited any guests with a “talent” to come up and share it, so of course my 13-year-old volunteered to come up and tell a joke. The food was good, and the music even better.

Another interesting highlight of the trip was that my son went to a book-signing by author Neil Gaiman at a bookstore in Dublin. We found out after the fact that we and Mr. Gaiman were on the same flight to Dublin.

If you’d like to see some pictures, click here.

Poetry: Not much going on creatively (another dry patch), but I did get good three bits of good news recently:
1. My poem “The Jena 6” was selected as a finalist by Mad Poets Review for their annual contest and has been published in their current issue. The judge was Leonard Gontarek.
2. My poem "Record Store" was accepted for publication by Philadelphia Poets.
3. I entered the Finishing Line Press chapbook contest last year and although I wasn’t a winner, they have offered to publish my manuscript. I’m chuffed because it will be the first time someone other than myself or a friend has published one of my books, and on its own merit. More details as they become available.

Music: Already it seems to shaping up to be another good music year. So far I’ve been enjoying new albums by A.C. Newman and Andrew Bird, and I discovered a great Canadian band called Woodpigeon.
I'm also enjoying a 5-CD box set of music by Steve Reich called Phases. I picked it up at Tower Records in Dublin for a bargain price of 20 Euros. (The exchange rate when I was there was only about $1.22 - one of the few benefits of this depressed economy.) Anyway, it's an excellent collection of his best work, if you like Reich anc minmalist music.

Poem of the Month:
Here’s the poem that won the prize in the Mad Poets Review contest.

The Jena 6

Southern trees bear strange fruit,
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root….
- Lewis Allen, as sung by Billie Holiday

When three black kids crossed
an imaginary line in the schoolyard,
someone hung three nooses from an oak tree,
stems without fruit.

The culprits weren’t prosecuted,
but six black kids, who tried to mete out
their own justice, got trumped-up charges
and no bail, today’s version of the noose.

Justice is blind, they say, but not color-blind.
Nothing hangs from the oak tree now,
no “fruit”, or suggestion of it,
yet the ground still smells of rot.

Poem-a-Day and Albums of the Year

2008-12-04T20:54:00.000-08:00

I made it! Once again, I managed to churn out 30 poems (actually, 31) for the Poetic Asides blog’s November “Poem-a-day Chapbook Challenge”. Props to Robert Lee Brewer for keeping us going with good writing prompts. I think the “theme” concept attracted more serious poets this time, and it showed in the general quality of the work posted there. Now he’s challenging us to fashion a chapbook out of what we produced, and submit to him and his wife so they can judge a “winner” (though the “prize” may not be more than bragging rights). I just may take him up on that – I have 31 new music-themed poems, of which at least 10-15 of them may be ready to go, and I can fill up the collection with some previously written pieces on the theme.

My poetry group’s journal, Up and Under: The QND Review, is moving right along, and we now have about a dozen poems as definite acceptances. This means, of course, that there’s still plenty of room for good poetry if you want to submit. Click here to reach our website.

Music: There are already lots of best-of-the-year lists either already out or in process, including NPR blogs, Paste Magazine, WXPN, eMusic, etc. I’ve compiled my list too, and I’ve sent variations on it to the various sites that solicit votes for favorites. Though it’s still not written in stone, here’s my top 30 for 2008, with some comments:

1. Stay Positive – The Hold Steady: I agree with Paste Magazine, who said these guys used to have a lock on the being best bar band in America, and now they’re one of the best bands in America, period. Best songs: Most of them, but “Sequestered in Memphis” and “Slapped Actress” are my favorites.
2. Vampire Weekend – Vampire Weekend: Sprightly Afro-pop from an unlikely source: a group of young guys from Brooklyn. Best songs: “A-Punk”, “Cape Cod Kwaasa Kwaasa”.
3. Fate – Dr. Dog: Philly band with a lot of 60’s psych-pop sensibility – this is their best album to date. Best Songs: “The Breeze”, “My Friend”.
4. Accelerate – R.E.M.: My vote for Comeback of the Year – their best since Monster, maybe better. Best songs: “Living Well is the Best Revenge”, “Man-sized Wreath”.
5. Viva la Vida – Coldplay: After a weak previous album in X&Y, they’re back with what may be their best album yet. Watch this one at Grammy time. Best songs: “Viva la Vida”, “Lost!”
6. Real Animal – Alejandro Escovedo: The venerable roots rocker just seems to get better and better. Best songs: “Always a Friend”, “Sister Lost Soul”.
7. The Seldom Seen Kid – Elbow : Fourth album by the Brit band that seems to combine the best of Coldplay and Radiohead, and here, a dash of Peter Gabriel. Best songs: “Grounds for Divorce”, “The Loneliness of a Tower Crane Driver”.
8. A Larum – Johnny Flynn: Brit-folk singer-songwriter backed by a very capable band, the Sussex Wit. May be the heir apparent musically to Richard Thompson (sorry, Teddy). Best songs: “The Box”, “Tickle Me Pink”.
9. Flock – Bell X1: Band sometimes referred to as the “Irish Coldplay” – best-sellers in their home country and for good reason. This was released a couple of years ago there but just came out in the States this year. Best songs: “Rocky Took a Lover”, “Bad Skin Day”.
10. Worrisome Heart – Melody Gardot: Philly chanteuse has an inspiring story (recovered from a near-fatal accident), but all that aside, she has a wonderful jazzy style and sophisticated original songs. If you like Norah Jones, you’ll love this gal. Best songs: “Worrisome Heart”, “Love Me Like a River Does”.

The rest:
11. The Midnight Organ Flight – Frightened Rabbit
12. Narrow Stairs – Death Cab for Cutie
13. Gift of Screws – Lindsey Buckingham
14. The ’59 Sound – The Gaslight Anthem
15. Soldier On (EP) – Andrew Bird
16. Blame it on Gravity – Old 97’s
17. Angels of Destruction! – Marah
18. Life Like – The Rosebuds
19. Volume One – She & Him
20. Oracular Spectacular – MGMT
21. Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes
22. Mockingbird – Allison Moorer
23. The Stand Ins – Okkervil River
24. Golden Delicious – Mike Doughty
25. Everything that Happens Will Happen Today – David Byrne and Brian Eno
26. Vol. 1: Frozen Ropes and Dying Quails – The Baseball Project
27. Rambling Boy – Charlie Haden and Friends
28. Carried to Dust – Calexico
29. Mescalito – Ryan Bingham
30. 49:00 – Paul Westerberg

Poem of the Month: Here’s the poem that Thick with Conviction picked as their “best of issue” for their October issue:

Old Man at Bedtime

At ten-thirty he sits at the edge of his bed
and swallows the last pills of the day,
then draws water from a straw
stuck in his favorite cup.
He places it on the night table,
then pulls two tissues from a box,
folding them in neat triangles
and tucking them into his pajama
shirt pocket (always blue plaid).
He removes his glasses, folds them,
and places them next to the cup.
His rosary beads lie on the bed
like a cross in a pile of beans,
but he has placed them exactly
two inches below the left corner
of his pillow, as he does every night.

You have to have a ritual
when you get old, he explains.
Otherwise you lose your place,
become confused, unmoored,
adrift in the mystery of your own house.

He turns off the light, reclines
on his right side, clutching the beads,
and begins with a prayer
modified from childhood
and covering all possibilities:
that he will wake again tomorrow
and begin his well-mapped routine
or not.

It's All Over But the Shouting!

2008-11-09T18:20:00.000-08:00

The election is finally over, and so are those incessantly annoying campaign ads. And
I for one am quite pleased with the results. Mr. Obama made history on Tuesday night, and I hope he rises to the occasion - he certainly has his work cut out for him. I have a feeling that anyone who expects him to be a savior, or to change the country's woes overnight, will be in for a disappointment. He's certainly an intelligent and extremely capable man, though, and with the right administration behind him, he could make a real positive difference for this country.

Poetry: Finally, I got the results of the Writer's Digest contest. I knew I didn't make the top 10, but I was disappointed to learn the other day that I didn't even place in the top 100. I've made it into the top 100 each of the other three or four times I have entered, and in 2005 I placed 10th. I figure there are three possible explanations: (1) they never received my entry, (2) I somehow disqualified myself, or (3) the competition was stiff this year and my poetry just wasn't good enough. I did notice that some entrants placed as many as eight of their poems in the top 100, which means they may have entered at least a dozen poems for the competition. That's a small fortune in entry fees.
(Writer's Digest charges $10 for the first entry and $5 for each additional entry.)
So maybe the fact that I only entered three poems (as I usually do) was a factor - I may have been crowded out by some poets the judges considered better. Oh well.

On the good-news side, I also learned that my poem "The Jena 6" was selected as a finalist for the annual Mad Poets Review contest. I have entered that contest several times before and hadn't won (although I've had poems accepted for publication by them before). The judge was Leonard Gontarek.

Also, and I think I mentioned this before, my poetry group, the Quick and Dirty Poets, is now accepting submissions for our annual journal, Up and Under: The QND Review. Click here
if you want to read our submission guidelines. The deadline is 12/30/2008.

I'm also involved in another "poem-a-day" challenge for the month of November. Robert Lee Brewer, whose Writer's Digest blog I've mentioned before, has offered an alternative for poets to the National Novel Writing Month challenge: write a poem a day this month, preferably with a unifying theme, with the intent of having enough material for a chapbook at the end of the month. He says he may even have a prize for the best chapbook collection when the month has ended. I needed something to spark my productivity, so I figured, "why not"? I"m trying for a music theme with this series of poems.

Music: I'm really into downloading lately, and it has probably exceeded buying CD's as my preferred method of music acquisition. Besides my eMusic membership, I look for cheap or free downloads on iTunes and Amazon.com. Amazon has had some pretty sweet deals lately, from classic album downloads as low as $1.99, to free full-length samplers, and one of the best deals of all, which I just acquired today: the equivalent of a 12-disc box set from ECM, one of the premier jazz labels, for $18.06. That's 124 jazz tracks for less than 15 cents a song. If you love jazz (specifically, Pat Metheny, Keith Jarrett, Jack De Johnette, Paul Motian, Carla Bley, and a host of others), you can't pass up this deal. I've also been enjoying Paste Digital magazine's free album downloads of "discovery" artists. This month featured The Rosebuds, an excellent power-pop band.

Poem of the Week/Fortnight/Month: I'm not sure what to call it lately since I post so sporadically. How about this one, which is practically brand new. I wrote it for the second day of the Poem-a-day challenge this month. The prompt was to write a poem that makes a statement about your theme, possibly in the voice of another person, real or imagined. So without further ado, here's John Lennon:

An Open Posthumous Letter from John

Let me remind you people,
it’s only music, and I weren’t no bloody saint.
Just because that crazy git gunned me down,
doesn’t mean you need to canonize me.
Yeah, it was a bummer, but life goes on,
doesn’t it? If I was still around, would I still
be with Yoko? Who knows? Would I be proud
of me sons? What do you think?
Would the Beatles’ve gotten back together?
Not bloody likely. ‘Course, we lost George too –
poor old George, and now we got “Sir Paul” –
that’s a laff. But why worry about all that –
why not make your own bloody music?
That’s right, pick up a guitar, pull up to a piano.
Learn a few tunes – “Imagine”, maybe –
God, I was proud of that one.
Stop yer bleedin’ whining and play,
then make yer peace – I know I made mine.
Leave the world happier than you found it.
I hope I did that too.

Extra: WE DID IT!!!

2008-10-31T16:42:00.000-07:00

Oh my gosh, my Phillies pulled it off! They are the 2008 World Series Champions! Their first championship in 28 years, and their second ever in their 120-plus year history. How sweet it is! It's also the first by any Philly pro sports team in 25 years (unless you count arena football). I'm really happy for that whole team, who seem like a great bunch of guys who really work together as a team. Despite their problems getting runners on base home, despite some early offensive slumps by guys like Burrell and Howard, they put it together with great pitching, timely home runs, and eventually, clutch hitting.
And Charlie Manuel just out-coached Joe Maddon. When Charlie opens his mouth, he’ll never be mistaken for a college professor, but he’s a baseball lifer (46 years in the business), he knows the game inside-out, his players would take a bullet for him, and right now, he seems like the smartest guy in the world.

Some of the great stories of the series:
1. Former Phillie and baseball great Jim Thome visiting Manuel , with whom he has a “father-son” relationship.

2. Country superstar Tim McGraw spreading the ashes of his dad, pitching legend Tug McGraw, on the pitcher’s mound before Game 3.

3. Ryan Howard’s bat finally coming alive.

4. Cole Hamels continuing his undefeated post-season streak.

5. Brad Lidge: unbeatable and perfect.

6. Chase Utley’s brilliant throw to home in Game 5, saving the win and possibly the series.

7. 45-year-old Jamie Moyer tossing a gem in Game 3 and coming full circle from young Phillies fan attending their last victory parade in 1980, to being in the parade himself in 2008.

On the down side:

1. Game 4, the longest rain delay in history (46 hours). In retrospect, the game should never have started that night, and at the very least it should have been halted before the 6th inning. Those guys should not have been made to play baseball in those conditions. A bonehead move by the commissioner and the powers that be.

2. I'm so glad I don't have to hear four things on Fox Sports any more:
a. The Phillies' subpar stats with runners in scoring position,
b. "Feliz is in the lineup more for his glove than his bat" (I think his series-winning hit shut them up about that),
c. The “Rocky” theme played after every Phillies half of the inning, and most of all:
d. The “curse of Billy Penn” and the 25-year championship drought!

3. Tampa Bay Rays, you guys are a talented bunch of young players, and I’m sure we’ll be hearing a lot more from many of you in the future. But I’ve gotta tell you, you just might have the ugliest park in major league baseball.

4. And a big sarcastic "thank you" to those Phillies fans the other night who reinforced the stereotype of the Phillies fan - loud, drunken, obnoxious, profane, mercilessly insulting to anyone who's not a Phillies fan (including members of the Rays players' families in the stands during the Series), and disrespectful of public and private property (my friend's 78-year-old aunt's car was trashed, for example). You must have been very proud of looking like totally out-of-control morons on local and national TV. Thank you - it makes it that much harder for a sportsmanlike, respectful, law-abiding Phillies fan like me to get any respect elsewhere.

I think the fans redeemed themselves today, though, when some 1.5 million(!) of them converged on downtown Philly to see their champs parade down Broad Street to the stadium area. There were very few incidents and the weather was perfect. The only down side was that the public transit system (which the media encouraged everyone to take, rather than drive in) became a state of gridlock for hours. But the city and vicinity are in a state of euphoria right now, because as Queen sings, “We are the Champions”!

Candidates' Debate II and Another Conference

2008-10-24T20:17:00.000-07:00

In my last post I mentioned my son the professor was invited to attend the Presidential debate at Hofstra University, where he works. Well, he invited us to join him, and my wife and youngest son went. They didn't get to sit in the hall, but they were in a viewing room with a big-screen TV right next door. It was a lively event, and though they didn't meet the candidates, they had a swell time. (My older son got access to the press tent, and met Mitt Romney and Triumph the Insult Comic Dog - either of which would have been a better running mate for McCain, by the way.)

My big event last week was attending a writing conference, "Push to Publish" at Rosemont College, near Villanova University outside Philadelphia. It was sponsored by Philadelphia Stories, a very good (and free) lit mag in the area. It was a good day - I attended three workshops: one on chapbooks and how to get them published; one on poetry craft and what editors consider a "good poem"; and a session on the pro's and con's of enrolling in an MFA program in writing. There were also "speed-date" sessions, 15 minutes each, with a variety of editors and agents. I got to meet Conrad "Bill" Weiser of Philadelphia Stories and Rosemary Cappello of Philadelphia Poets, another good local journal. I also saw some friends and acquaintances who were on the panels, including Eileen D'Angelo of Mad Poets Review and Peter Krok of Schuylkill Valley Journal. I schmoozed with some fellow writers too, of course, including a gentleman with a heavy German accent who teaches geology at Penn and is working on a book of essays in a pop-science vein, sort of like Isaac Asimov or Stephen Jay Gould.

GO PHILLIES!!! Or should I say, "Get going, Phillies!" They're tied one game each with the Tampa Bay Rays (I keep wanting to call them the "Devil Rays", but they dropped the "devil" a few years ago. Probably some evangelists raised a stink.) Anyway, they need to start scoring guys on base if they want any chance at winning this World Series. They were lucky to get a pitching gem in Game 1 from Hamels, Madson and Lidge, but in Game 2, they just couldn't put it together. Rollins and Howard are in major post-season slumps, and even Burrell and Utley could be playing better (though Utley hit a two-run homer to help win Game 1). Here's hoping they get in the groove again when they return Saturday night to Philly.

Music: WXPN, my favorite music station, finished their fifth annual 885 countdown - this time the theme was "885 Essential XPN Songs" - not necessarily the greatest songs ever performed, but the best songs that represent the alternative-music spirit of XPN, as voted by listeners. (We were invited to send a ten-song list, and all the votes were tabulated. In the end, eight of my ten songs placed in the top 100,and two in the top 10, including the #1 song.) Here's their list, if you're curious - you'll find it interesting that the Beatles did not place a song in the top 100.

Poem of the Week/Month:

...but who's counting?
I wanted to offer a poem that tied in with one of the above topics, but failing that, I dusted off an oldie that was published in the journal which I now help edit, Up and Under, the QND Review. (By the way, we are now accepting submissions - check the website here.)
So here's the poem:

Odyssey

It’s a miracle this leaky old boat
has made it so far.

Long as we have ploughed
through whitecaps and whirlpools,

everything the pissed-off Poseidon of life
could throw at us,

your rudder-steady hand has navigated
past Scylla and Charybdis,

and so many lesser hazards.
And the sirens, oh the sirens.

If it were up to me,
we would be dashed upon the rocks.

We will make it through this voyage,
Even if you have to lash me to the mast.

Going to the Candidates' Debate....

2008-10-07T20:29:00.000-07:00

Yeah, that's the old Simon and Garfunkel lyric, and actually, I'm not going, but my eldest son is, as a faculty representative at the next presidential debate at Hofstra University, where he teaches. He also was a member of a panel who presented the results of a political poll to the Washington Press Corps last week. (It was sparsely attended because, as luck would have it, it was the same day the "Bailout
Bill" was initially defeated.) But as his grandmother used to say, "I'm real proud!"
As to the debates so far - well, I won't get too political here. I've already made my choice, but suffice to say that (a) I'm disappointed that neither candidate has any designs on considering a national health care plan, and (b) Sarah Palin is the worst VP running-mate choice since Ross Perot's boy Jim Stockdale. (Remember him? - the guy who said during his debate, "I don't know what I'm doing here!")

Poetry: Well, I did attend the Dodge Poetry Festival this year, and it was great as usual. As planned, I hung out with my Quick and Dirty buddies, and though it was rather dismal weather-wise, it was a literary feast for anyone who's into poetry. To witness a panel conversation with five U.S. Poets Laureate (Maxine Kumin, Robert Hass, Billy Collins, Ted Kooser and the current Laureate, Charles Simic) was alone worth the price of admission. And the Saturday night "concert" and Sunday "matinee" were super as well. Besides the previously mentioned Laureates, I saw Lucille Clifton, Franz Wright, Mark Doty, Jane Hirschfield, Edward Hirsch, Sharon Olds, Linda Pastan, Joy Harjo, Coleman Barks, and two poets whose workshops I took at previous conferences at Rutgers, Chris Abani and Thomas Sayers Ellis. There was good music too, courtesy of the Paul Winter Consort and the Andean music group Yarina, both of which have become "house bands" of the festival. I also got to see a poet friend, BJ Ward, read as one of the lesser-known "Festival Poets". He's excellent and a crowd-pleasing reader, so he got an enthusiastic ovation from the audience. Maybe he won't be "lesser-known" much longer. I didn't participate in any of the open readings this year - I was more involved in soaking it all up.

Other poetry news: Thick with Conviction just put up their October issue, featuring three of my poems, of which one, "Old Man at Bedtime", won their "Best of Issue" award. I'm pretty chuffed about that. That balanced the letdown of learning that I wasn't a top 10 winner in this year's Writer's Digest competition. They haven't published the honorable mentions yet, though, so I hope I at least got one of those. (I did place 10th in the 2005 competition and got honorable mentions in previous contests.)

Music: Not much new stuff since last time, but I decided to subscribe to the Paste Magazine Digital VIP program. For a nominal monthly fee, I get a digital version of one of the best music and media magazines out there these days, plus a monthly album download by an up-and-coming artist, a full-length music sampler, weekly live music downloads, and a quarterly video download. My cup runneth over! I just signed up this week and I've downloaded three albums worth of music I still have to hear.

Poem of the Month: I'm going to break with tradition here, and instead of featuring one of my own poems, I'll present one by BJ Ward. I was going to use a baseball poem of his, "Upon Hearing that Baseball is Boring to America's Youth", in honor of my beloved Phillies, who are about to take on the Dodgers for the NL championship. But instead I'll offer his wonderful Pushcart Prize-winning poem:

Roy Orbison's Last Three Notes

12 mph over the speed limit on Route 80, I realize
the way I know the exact size of my bones
is the way I know I am the only one
in America listening to Roy Orbison
singing “Blue Bayou” at this precise moment,
and I feel sorry for everyone else.
Do they realize they are missing
his third from last note?—Bluuuueee—
and how it becomes a giant mouth I’m driving into—
“Bay”—pronounced bi—becomes the finger
pointing back—biiiiiiii—and all the sealed up cars
greasing along this dirty, pot-holed clavicle of New Jersey
don’t know this “you”—constant as my exhaust smoke—
yooooouuuu— and the beats underneath, more insistent
than the landlord knocking on the door—horns, drums, guitar, bass—
my Toyota Corolla is now one serious vehicle,
and the band and I are all alone, filling it up—
Roy and me in our cool sunglasses up front
and his musicians barely fitting their instruments in the back,
driving into the blue—bom bom bom—pulling ahead
of the pollution faster than New Jersey can spit it out—
Bye—boom bom—his leggy background singers must be jammed
in the trunk because suddenly I hear them and suddenly
we are Odysseus and his boys bringing the Sirens with us,
and the cassette player is our black box
containing all essential details in case we don’t make it,
but I know we’re going to make it because
Roy, my cool copilot, turns to me and says,
like the President says to his top general
after a war has been won, or like Morgan Earp
on his deathbed said to Wyatt when vengeance
was up to him, or like Gretchen Honecker
said when I knew I was about to get my first kiss,
Roy turns to me and says, “You—”

[From Gravedigger's Birthday, North Atlantic Books, 2002. Used with permission of the author.]

Dusting off the Old Blog...

2008-09-21T18:24:00.000-07:00

I'd say two and a half months is long enough to post one's next entry, don't you? I've either been too lazy, or too busy, to pay much attention to it lately. I seriously doubt many folks have missed me, but for the two of three of you who have: I'm ba-a-a-ck!

Summer was full of activity, especially for my twelve-year-old, who did three weeks of Boy Scout sleepaway camp (coming home on weekends), three weeks of theater day camp (and landed a major role in their play), a week of basketball camp, and two weeks of vacation with the family. I previously mentioned our South Carolina trip, but in August we trekked to New England. We stopped over at my aunt's and uncle's house in Massachusetts, then planned to spend a few nights at a timeshare in Bethel, Maine, then up to mid-Maine to see my sister. I say "planned to spend a few nights at a timeshare", because we only spent one night there. Let me just say that if we expected to stay at a motel instead, we would have been disappointed with the place. But the fact that it was an RCI timeshare exchange was practically an insult - it was a converted two-star motel (at best) and it was dingy, not very clean, and had bugs in the bethroom sink. I had to talk my wife out of sleeping in the car that night, she was so upset. We'd thought we'd booked one of the other resorts in Bethel that had a "Gold Crown" rating (RCI's highest quality level), but instead felt like we were victims of a "switcheroo". I guess it was our own dumb fault for not checking the confirmation form closely enough. Anyway, we checked out the next day (after calling RCI, who promised to give us back our week and our exchange fee) and booked two nights at a very nice Hampton Inn and Suites in Waterville. In all our fifteen or so years of timeshare exchange, we were never so disappointed with the accommodations. Oh yeah, the name of the place is the Riverview Resort. Other than that, our vacation was fine. We also visited Acadia National Park in Maine, as well as Sturbridge Village in Sturbridge Mass. and the national park in Lowell, Mass. All are highly recommended. My sister also announced during our visit that she getting married to her longtime boyfriend, a native State-of-Mainer and a really nice guy. I wish them both the best.

Poetry: Again, I've been very disappointed with my lack of inspiration and work ethic these last couple of months. I wrote more than 30 poems in April for the "Poem-a-day Challenge", but I probably haven't cranked out more than a dozen since then, if that. Maybe my upcoming pilgrimage to the Dodge Poetry Festival in northern NJ will turn me around. If you've never been to this event, often called "the Woodstock of Poetry", you have to go at least once. (It's held every even-numbered year.) This will be my fourth trip, I think, and I'll be there all day Saturday and Sunday.

There is some good news on the publication front: my poem "Ladies' View" won third prize in the "Simian Poetry Contest" sponsored by Shakespeare's Monkeys, a poetry community site with publishes the Shakespeare's Monkey Revue. I won $25, publication and a year's subscription. Not too shabby! I've also sent off chapbook manuscripts to ByLine Magazine and Finishing Line Press - fingers crossed. Sadly, ByLine has suspended print publication - I've been a longtime subscriber and had much success with them in publication and prizes - I won one of their big annual prizes in 2003. Their chapbook contest is still on, though, and an excellent poet named Ellen Bass is the judge. (I got her latest book after learning that she was judging, because I wasn't familiar with her work - now I'm a fan.) I'm still waiting for the results of the Writer's Digest Annual Writing Competition, too - last time I entered (2005?) I won 10th prize for poetry. (My friend Anna Evans won first prize!) Don't know if I'll get so lucky this year.

The big news from my poetry group, the Quick and Dirty Poets, is that one of our founding members, Rachel Bunting, is leaving. Though I understand her reasons, I'm sad to see her go - she's a sweet person and has become an amazing poet. The other news from our band of bards is that we have restarted our journal, Up and Under: The QND Review, and are now accepting submissions. Click here for more information.

Music: Well, what's been going on in music lately? The first thing to pop into my head is a great new band out of New Brunswick NJ (home of Rutgers, my alma mater) called The Gaslight Anthem. They sound like what Bruce Sringsteen would be like if he'd been born 30 years later and had listened to more punk music. They reference a lot of Springsteenian themes and imagery too, yet they still avoid sounding derivative. Their second album, The '59 Sound, is rockin' and excellent. Check out their website here. Other CD's that have caught my ear: the new Okkervil River album The Stand Ins, Johnny Flynn's A Larum, The Hold Steady's Stay Positive, and the Fleet Foxes' self-titled album.

Poem of the... Quarter?
What better choice than my prize-winning poem that just appeared in Shakespeare's Monkey Revue. It's based on a breathtaking natural site in Killarney, Ireland, where I visited last October, and the poem is also based on a local legend that inspired the name of the place, Ladies' View:

Ladies’ View

When Queen Victoria came to Killarney
and stayed at Muckross House, she sent us ladies
up the hill to find a picnic spot. Dutifully
we bounced along the road in one-horse carts,
carrying wicker baskets of paté, aspic, and sandwiches.
But when Her Majesty mounted the hill herself,
we were unprepared, so she rebuked us
in front of everyone assembled.

How could we tell her we were delayed
by seductive nature? A glacier-carved valley
lay before us, spread between the thighs
and shoulders of the mountains, with the jewels
of Killarney Town in the distance, in the nape
of the neck of this land, the river and lakes
like fingers caressing it all. And as we stood
on the overlook, the wind lifted our petticoats
and loosened the bonnets from our hair.

Word of the Year: "Staycation"

2008-07-06T16:59:00.000-07:00

Yep, that's my nominee, anyway. There are a few "Word of the Year" lists out there, and past winners include "9-11", "metrosexual", "truthiness", and "w00t!" But it seems the soaring cost of oil, and consequently, travel, has made folks rethink their vacation and travel plans, deciding in some cases just to stay home and enjoy relaxing there. (Not possible in my home - we'd spend the week working on all the stuff we can't get done when we work 40 hours a week.) The comic strip "Cathy" has had a funny series where Cathy and her husband end up spending way more on their "staycation" (with internet shopping, etc.) then they ever would if they'd gone away.

We had planned two long road-trip vacations for this summer before this gasoline thing got out of hand. We just returned from the first vacation - to South Carolina - and spent over $200 on gas alone round-trip - and that's with a hybrid SUV that gets almost 30 mpg. Not that I regret the trip - we spent 8 days at Wyndham Ocean Ridge on Edisto Island, a beautiful, natural and quiet vacation spot with gorgeous beaches and interesting flora and fauna (palmettos, Spanish moss, live oaks and crepe myrtle, plus alligators!). We took day trips to Charleston and Savannah, both beautiful cities with lots of history, as well as Fort Sumter and Boone Plantation. I hope to post some photos on my Flickr account soon (stay tuned). Our August destination is Maine.

Poetry: Not much going on since the conference last month. I've written a couple of new poems but nothing to crow about. I did enter a few contests held by Mad Poets Review, Shakespaeare's Monkeys, and Finishing Line Press, and submitted some poetry to US 1 Worksheets, so we'll see what comes of all that. This Friday my group, Quick and Dirty Poets, continues their summer reading series with featured poet Tammy Paolino, whose day job is editor for the Camden NJ Courier Post, and who writes some excellent and often very funny poetry. We Q&D Poets are also planning a group excursion to the Dodge Poetry Festival this fall.

Music: If I could only recommend one album this month, it would be the new one from Alejandro Escovedo, Real Animal. The guy is just one of the best roots-rockers and songwriters around. This album is a bit of a return to his earlier days - whereas his more recent albums had a certain gorgeous craftmanship to them, this one has a harder edge and pays homage to his beginnings as a punk-rocker in the late 1970's. He hasn't abandoned the beautiful melodies, though - they're still represented on a few tracks. Sadly, it appears I'll miss his upcoming local appearance (at the XPoNential Music Festival this week) due to a schedule conflict - I've missed the last three or four appearances he has made in the Philly area.

Poem of the Month: Here's a silly little verse that was published in the online journal Sunken Lines. The origin is courtesy of my youngest son, who when he was much littler, went through a bedtime routine where his stuffed animals who were in bed with him all kissed me on the head, and I was obliged to kiss them back. One evening when he'd brought his stuffed alligator to bed with him, I said, "Isn't the alligator going to kiss me good night?" And he replied, "Dad! Alligators can't kiss!" Instant inspiration!

Alligators Can't Kiss

It's a fact: alligators can't kiss -
sharp teeth and a long snout like this
make their oral affection remiss.
Alligators aren't able to kiss.

And what's more, armadillos can't hug -
they'd rather roll up, tight and snug,
so attackers walk off with a shrug.
Armadillos just don't want to hug.

And centipedes, you know, cannot dance -
legs'll tangle; they don't stand a chance.
So forget any ballroom romance!
Centipedes don't know how to dance.

So that brings this poem to me -
I kiss and I hug admirably!
But dancing, I can't guarantee.
Still, that's not too bad, two for three.

Music Stuff

2008-06-10T18:34:00.000-07:00

Recently, talk on the WXPN bulletin boards turned to summers at the shore (or as we in the Philly/South Jersey area say, “down the shore”). So we compiled some top-ten lists of songs about three of the best states to hit the beach: California, Florida, and New Jersey. Out of loyalty, I selected the New Jersey list to reproduce here (I substituted #6 and 8 for two other tunes):

1. 4^th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy) – Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band
2. Jersey Girl – Tom Waits
3. Hackensack – Fountains of Wayne
4. On the Way to Cape May – Al Alberts
5. Wildwood Days – Bobby Rydell
6. Atlantic City – Bruce Springsteen
7. I’m from New Jersey – John Gorka
8. Garden State Stomp – Dave van Ronk
9. Neptune Ciy – Nicole Atkins
10. No Left Turns in Jersey – Eddie from Ohio

List #2: I know the year isn’t even half over yet, but I already have a top 10 favorite albums list, which of course may look significantly different by the end of the year. So far, these are my ten favorites (some of which I've mentioned before):

1. Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend (they do a very catchy Afro-pop kinda thing)
2. Bell X1 - Flock (released a year or two ago in their native Ireland but just available in the States in 2008)
3. R.E.M. - Accelerate (Their best since Monster, at least)
4. Elbow - The Seldom Seen Kid (grossly underappreciated Brit band that is best described as Radiohead meets Coldplay)
5. Old 97's - Blame it on Gravity (after a power-pop detour, they're back to the alt-country stuff that they do best)
6. Frightened Rabbit - The Midnight Organ Fight (edgy, emotive stuff - an indie sleeper)
7. Marah - Angels of Destruction! (kick-butt alt-country/rock band from Brooklyn by way of Philly)
8. Allison Moorer - Mockingbird (fine covers album from Mrs. Steve Earle)
9. Melody Gardot - Worrisome Heart (Philly chanteuse does original, soulful jazz tunes as well as, maybe even better than, Norah Jones)
10. MGMT - Oracular Spectacular (fun neo-psychedelic band - "Time to Pretend" is a pretty catchy little ditty)

Bubbling under:
Ryan Bingham - Mescalito (it's a 2007 release, but XPN featured it in January, and I didn't hear it till this year - excellent alt-country from a 20-something guy with a voice like an old prospector)
She & Him - Volume One (actress Zooey Deshamel teams up with M. Ward for some frothy, entertaining pop with not a little homage to "girl groups" - the results are surprisingly good - are you listening, Scarlett Johannsen?)
Mike Doughty - Golden Delicious (not the near-classic that his previous CD, Haughty Melodic, was, but still pretty friggin' good)
Bob Mould - District Line (ol' Bob is mellowing out and experimenting with different studio techniques, but he's always interesting)
Cat Power – Jukebox (another album of covers with an original or two thrown in - pretty good stuff)

I also just got Kathleen Edwards’ Asking for Flowers, which has been getting excellent reviews, but I haven’t listened to it yet. I’m betting it will eventually crack my top 10, as will the new Death Cab for Cutie and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds albums, if and when I get them (the title track to “Dig, Lazarus, Dig” by Nick Cave is possibly my favorite song of the year so far). If you have a favorite album or two from this year, leave me a comment and maybe I’ll give it a listen.

Praise for the PWC

2008-06-09T20:56:00.000-07:00

I attended the 60^th Annual Philadelphia Writers Conference this weekend – I’ve gone for four years straight now, and it seems to get better every year. The theme of the three-day conference, which is celebrating its diamond anniversary, is “Diamonds Are a Quill’s Best Friend” (I know, it’s a wincingly bad pun). Despite that, I had a great time – didn’t see quite as many of my closer poet buddies as usual, but a number of friends and acquaintances, including two who ran sessions there.

As usual, there was a wide variety of workshops and seminars, including juvenile fiction, literary and contemporary fiction, flash fiction, memoir, nonfiction, journaling, creativity and writer’s block, and of course poetry. And there are agents and editors available by appointment. Poets Barbara Daniels (with whom I’m friendly) and Kate Northrop led the two poetry workshops, both of which I took, and though they had contrasting styles, they were both excellent. I also took a flash fiction seminar, and a journaling seminar led by another poet friend, Therese Halscheid – they were excellent as well. But the highlight for me was the creativity workshop run by Bonnie Neubauer, who wrote The Write-Brain Workbook: 366 Exercises to Liberate Your Writing (Writer’s Digest Books). She gave us three one-hour sessions of some of the most productive and fun writing exercises I’ve ever done. While I’m plugging books, let me recommend Barbara Daniels’ Rose Fever and Therese Halscheid’s Uncommon Geography, both excellent books of poetry (both are available on Amazon.com).

The keynote speaker opening the first day’s events was Michael Smerconish, a local radio talk-show host. I thought I’d bristle at his conservative politics throughout the presentation, but I was pleasantly surprised that he’s not a blowhard bully like some of those other guys. He was diplomatic, knowing that a lot of folks in the audience may not share his views, and pointed out that he doesn’t always subscribe to conservative dogma: for instance, he supports stem cell research and says we should get out of Iraq. But he talked more about his writing career than his politics anyway. It seems, though, that sometimes his on-air manner gets the best of him – about halfway through his speech he paused and wondered, “Why am I yelling at all of you?”

The guest speaker for the Saturday banquet was Mark Bowden, longtime Philadelphia Inquirer reporter and author of Black Hawk Down, who gave us interesting insight into his career and how he came to write his bestseller, which of course became a very successful film. Then came the annual awards ceremony, which the presenter, Mad Poets president (also PWC board member and new president) Eileen D’Angelo, described as the “Academy Awards for Philadelphia writers”. That may be a little bit of an overstatement, but it does have a similar feel (though we don’t dress in gowns and tuxes) – the camaraderie of fellow poets, the recognition of your peers, and the element of surprise. I brought home second prize and honorable mention from the poetry contests – not quite as good as 2006 and 2007, when I won first prize, but it’s still a thrill. Will I go back next year? Very likely. Props to all the folks who work hard each year to make the PWC such a fine event.

This is a long entry for me. I’ll post a separate blog in a few days on a music topic. Meanwhile, I’ll leave you with a poem I wrote two years ago at the conference, after coming back from lunch and seeing the annual Gay Pride Parade:

Gay Pride Parade

I am returning from lunch in the city,
when the parade crosses my path.
Led by a row of butch Harleys,
they march down Market Street,
rainbow flags snapping in a stiff June breeze.

Drag majorettes lead a rousing drum corps,
setting the rhythm and the pace.
Following them, a group of alternative families –
two mothers pushing their stroller,
a six-year-old boy riding the shoulders
of one of his dads; then the float
with the bearded beauty queens
waving to a cheering crowd.

I think, good for them,
but the old fart in me finds it hard
to leap from “tolerate” to “celebrate”.
Still, I half-expect to see you marching by,
proud of your new identity.
And if I saw you, I would wave.
So I wave anyway, as if I have.

(First published in Up and Under: The QND Review, 2007.)

I Did It Again!

2008-04-30T19:43:00.000-07:00

Woohoo! I made it! I managed to write 30 poems in 30 days for the National Poetry Month's "Poem-a-Day Challenge". I wrapped it up with a sonnet about "endings" - the theme was from Robert Lee Brewer's blog on the Writer's Digest website. As I said before, his daily prompts have really kept me going each day. The toughest assignment was on the 28th when he asked everyone participating to write a sestina. There's been quite a poetry community that has sprung up over there as a result of this month of exercises. It's also great to have over 30 new poems to work with and revise - maybe a few are good enough to publish. It's been work, but it's been fun too. And today Mr. Brewer featured my poem "ROBOT INSULTS" as one of the best (and funniest, in his opinion) from April 15th.

I survived birthday #57 intact on Sunday. My wife made a delicious brunch, and we had a few friends and family over. In the afternoon we met a couple of other friends to see stage play The Odd Couple. Last night my good friends from Quick and Dirty Poets celebrated my birthday too. I'm the "old man" of the group - our next oldest member is 50 next month, and three of our members (and one unofficial member) are 30 and under. I told them last night that hanging with them makes me feel 29 again. We're planning our annual summer reading series, which we call "Hot & Sticky" - we'll be featuring poets Kathy Graber, Tammy Paolino, and Gina Larkin. (If you're local to me, the readings are at the Daily Grind coffee house in Mt. Holly, NJ, and the first two are scheduled for Friday June 13, and Friday July 11, at 7:00.)We will also resurrect our lit mag, Up and Under: The QND Review this fall, when we will begin to accept submissions.

Music: Two of my sons treated me to a concert Saturday night for my birthday - Poi Dog Pondering was at the TLA. Great band, but I thought the sound system was jacked up too high, to the point that it distorted and muddied the music. Before the concert I stopped at Repo Records on South Street and got two used CD's: Wee Tam by Incredible String Band (a hard-to-find 1968 album from the British psychedelic-mystic-folk band. I also got The Clash's London Calling, which, believe it or not, I never owned on record or CD. It took me 28 years to realize what a great album it was.

Poem of the Week: The writing prompt for the 13th was to write a poem about a song or based on a song, and use a line from the song as an epigraph.

The First Time I Heard "Tomorrow Never Knows"

Turn off your mind, relax and float downstream…
- The Beatles

And I did that,
as I lay on my bedroom floor
between ersatz headphones,
the boxy speakers of my portable stereo.

I slipped downstream
as sped-up tape loops keened
like fantastic creatures,
and otherworldly flora sprang up on the banks.

John’s voice, the psychedelic gondolier,
poled me through this riverworld,
unprecedented to my 15-year-old ears,
and when the closing strains swirled away,

I got up, opened the door,
and walked in.

Poem-a-Day: Right on Track!

2008-04-23T18:58:00.000-07:00

I'm still doing great on the poem-a-day challenge, 23 for 23 plus a couple of "bonus" poems, largely thanks to Robert Lee Brewer's daily writing prompts on his blog. (See prior post for the link.) I haven't missed a day since I joined his blog on the 7th. He gets over 100 entries for each of his prompts, and he has started to post his ten or so favorites from each day's assignment. He's up to Day 11 now, and he's just featured two poems I wrote: "Record Store" (Day 10) and "Paper Clip" (Day 11). There have been some really good poems submitted (and of course, some not-so-good ones), and certain poets seem to stand out day after day. You should check out the site at least to read them, and it's not too late to join in on the writing assignments.

I got word that my poem, "Mosquito Truck", has been accepted for the next issue of Edison Literary Review. They also feature one of my poems, "52 Pickup", as a sample on their website.

I wish I could get to all the poetry events going on this month. Tonight I missed an event at one of the local libraries, hosted by my friend Therese Halscheid, an excellent poet from South Jersey. Next week is a poetry reading that is part of my home town's (Cherry Hill's) week-long "Arts Bloom" festival, but I will have to miss that too. Still, I'm lucky to be in an area where there's so much going on poetically, and not just during National Poetry Month.

Music: My local favorite music station, 88.5 WXPN, has a daily feature called "Top 5 @ 5", hosting by the afternoon DJ, Jim McGuinn. He plays five (sometimes more) songs on a related theme, so in honor of National Poetry Month, I thought I'd suggest a theme of "songs about poetry" : songs that mention famous poets by name, or set a famous poem to music, or even have a poet's participation, or just mention poetry or poets in general. There are a lot more than you might think. Here's the list I sent him:

1. Walt Whitman's Niece - Billy Bragg and Wilco
2. Sylvia Plath - Ryan Adams
3. Bukowski - Modest Mouse
4. Richard Cory - Simon and Garfunkel (the Edwin Arlington Robinson poem set to music)
5. The Dangling Conversation - Simon and Garfunkel (mentions Emily Dickinson and Robert Frost)
6. The Stolen Child - The Waterboys (the Yeats poem set to music)
7. My Ride's Here - Warren Zevon (co-written with his friend, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Paul Muldoon -also name-checks a bunch of poets)
8. Poetry Man - Phoebe Snow
9. Cemetery Gates - The Smiths (mentions Keats, Yeats and Wilde)
10. Poets - The Tragically Hip
11. Poet - Sly and the Family Stone
12. Tangled Up in Blue - Bob Dylan
("Then she opened up a book of poems
And handed it to me
Written by an Italian poet
From the thirteenth century....")

Jim used my theme today and played #1, 9, 10 and 12 on my list, along with:

Afternoons and Coffeespoons - Crash Test Dummies (mentions T.S. Eliot)
Ghetto Defendant - The Clash (contains Allen Ginsburg reading his poetry)

He and traffic reporter Lauren Valle also composed a couple of haiku for each other on the air. Very cute. I'm glad they had fun with the theme.

Some other "poetry" songs:
Desolation Row - Bob Dylan ("Ezra Pound and T.S. Eliot/Fighting in the captain's tower...")
The Highwayman - Loreena McKennitt (lyrics from the Alfred Noyes poem)

Other music news: Check out Heavenly Harmonies, a collection of early vocal music by Thomas Tallis and William Byrd, performed by Stile Antico, on Harmonia Mundi Records. It is sublime - some of the most breathtakingly beautiful music - and performances - ever.
I got two CD's from the Amazon Vine program. One is the new album by Paddy Casey, Addicted to Company. I wasn't impressed - you can read my full review on Amazon.com. The other is Oracular Spectacular by MGMT. I haven't heard it yet, but it's been getting some good buzz. More on that later....

Poem of the Week: Here's another one I've written for the poem-a-day challenge. The writing prompt was to title a poem, "How ______ Behaves" and to fill in the blank with anything you like, then write about the subject. Since it was Monday the 14th, I wrote the following:

How Monday Behaves

Like a sidewinder, a varmint behind the rocks,
ready to spook your horse.

Like a mad scientist, his piecemeal human
writhing as he screams, “It’s alive!”

Like a despotic king in ancient Asia Minor,
demanding your first-born child.

Like Angelo Rossetti in fifth grade,
who used to like to trip you with his foot
every time you walked up the aisle.

Like you have the worst hangover of your life,
and it’s your mother, pulling up the shades.

Like the road that you hate with ten traffic lights
that are always synchronized against you.

Like it wants to dance to every song
ever written about it:
“Monday, Monday”; “Stormy Monday”,
“Blue Monday”, “I Don’t Like Mondays” –
and it wants you to be its partner,
and it has two left feet.

Like it wants to be Monday with a capital “M” –
no wait, it always has a capital “M” –
like it wants to be all in caps and scream in your ear:
MONDAY!